Greg Abbott's aggressive fundraising shows he's not content to be a mere 2-term governor

AUSTIN — There are 12 million reasons Gov. Greg Abbott is likely to seek a third term. Or maybe it's 12.1 million reasons.

That's how many dollars Texas' Republican chief executive collected for his campaign war chest during the last two weeks in June. For those not that good at math, that works out to just under a million bucks a day.

The short fundraising window is because Texas law bars state officeholders from raising campaign cash in the weeks immediately before and immediately after the Legislature is in session. That window opened June 17, and for Abbott, it opened wide. He now has more than $25 million in his campaign account and plenty of time to add to it.

If you're wondering, "Hey, didn't the governor just win his second term in November?" The answer is yes. And without coming right out and saying it, he's broadly hinted that he'll go for a third in 2022.

Following the Rick Perry playbook

And if he does, he'll be following the relatively new playbook drawn up by his predecessor, Rick Perry, who left office in 2015 as the state's longest-serving governor.

Before Perry, being Texas governor was a comparatively short-term gig. Until 1974, a governor's term was only two years. And when it was extended to four years, the first four governors who sought a second term were tossed out by the voters.

And even when George W. Bush broke the curse on winning a second four-term in 1998, he left the Governor's Mansion two years in to become president. Perry, the lieutenant governor at the time, moved up and stayed put for the next decade and a half.

Perry's long tenure, and that of then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who held office from 2003 until 2015, created a bottleneck in the GOP bench. A generation of up-and-coming Republican political talent was effectively left marching place waiting for an opening in the upper tier of state government.

How a political career stalls out

Take the case of Todd Staples, who arrived in the Texas House as something of a wunderkind from East Texas in 1995 at age 32. He made it to the state Senate by 37 and was elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner at 43. That's the same post that launched Perry's statewide political career.

One of Staples former House colleagues quipped privately that its was taken as a given that East Texan was a sure-fire future governor, and who knew how high he'd climb after that.

But for eight years, Staples marked time. By 2014, he was ready to move up and decided to challenge Dewhurst in the Republican primary. But so were other one-time up-and-comers. Dewhurst was toppled but Staples finished in third place. He's now out of politics, running the Texas Oil and Gas Association.

Abbott was also among those forced to bide their time during the Perry years. While Perry was becoming Texas' longest-serving governor, Abbott was become its longest-serving attorney general, holding the office 2003-2015.

And a third term as governor for Abbott would likely mean another bottleneck for another generation of bottlenecked up-and-coming Republicans, especially if Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also runs again in 2022.

Among those stuck marching in place could be Land Commissioner George P. Bush, 43, and Comptroller Glenn Hegar, 48.

And now, an update

Last week, we looked at the upcoming race for U.S. Senate where three Democrats had signaled their intention to challenge three-term Republican John Cornyn.

Now, Houston City Councilwoman Amanda Even, a 37-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School, has stepped up to join former Air Force helicopter pilot MJ Hegar, former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell and state Sen. Royce West in next March's Democratic primary.

John C. Moritz covers Texas government and politics for the USA Today Network in Austin. Contact him at jmoritz@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @JohnnieMo.

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