Lt. Col. Allen West Aims to Become First Black Republican Elected Governor, Announces Primary Challenge Against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott
Shane Trejo
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Retired Lieutenant Colonel Allen West has announced that he will run for governor of Texas and primary challenge Greg Abbott, who is reviled by the state’s conservative base for refusing to secure the border.
“I’ve not been in elected political office for about a decade, but I can no longer sit on the sidelines and see what has happened in these United States of America and … the place that I call home,” said West, who served as Texas GOP chairman before stepping down to run for governor, in a video released on Independence Day.
West would become the first black Republican ever elected to be governor in any state in the nation if his challenge against Abbott is successful. P. B. S. Pinchback had previously served as Governor of Louisiana from 1872 to 1873 but he was appointed to the role and never elected through a vote of the people. West’s election would be a truly historic victory for Texas and the Republican Party in general.
West is not the only conservative who is stepping up to challenge Abbott. Former Texas state senator Don Huffines is also running against Abbott.
Big League Politics reported on Huffines’ decision to run when it was announced in May:
“Former Republican member of the Texas State Senate Don Huffines is launching a primary challenge against incumbent Governor Greg Abbott in 2022.
Huffines is a notable Dallas-based businessman whose family is known for the business prowess in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
The former State Senator’s campaign centers on the theme that Abbott has not delivered the goods on conservative policy items such as re-opening the Texas economy from the jump.
“Texas deserves actual Republican leadership that will act urgently and decisively—no more excuses or lies,” Huffines declared in a statement, promising to take decisive action on border security, property taxes, and election integrity. All of these are major agenda items of disaffected Texas conservatives. During his time in office, Huffines was a proponent of changing Texas’s gun laws by being one of the elected officials pushing for Constitutional Carry, which ended up being subverted by Republican leadership in the State Senator.
He would eventually be defeated in 2018 by Democrat Nathan Johnson. Demographic changes in the DFW area coupled with a generalized anti-Republican backlash led to Huffines’ defeat.
Abbott is expected to run for a third term in office in 2022. However, he will face stiff challenges from within his party due to his failure to reopen the state in a timely manner and pass legislation that conservatives care about.”
In addition to West and Huffines, right-wing entertainer Chad Prather is also primary challenging Abbott for governor. He is welcoming West to the fold, believing that a variety of voices are necessary to take down Abbott and the powerful Austin RINO machine that is backing him.
“I hope that Allen joins me in condemning the Governor Greg Abbott for failing to prioritize laws that would prohibit sadistic physical and chemical sex reassignment procedures on children,” Prather said. “While I’m at it, corporations should be prohibited from mandating COVID passports.”
If Abbott cannot win over 50 percent of the vote in the primary, it will go to a run-off. West and other grassroots candidates can build momentum and knock the luster off of Abbott, perhaps demonstrating to Trump that Abbott is an albatross moving forward. Texas has a great opportunity to strengthen their Republican Party by booting Abbott in 2022.
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