Abbott: Larger percentage of California transplants supported Cruz in 2018 than native Texans

BEXAR COUNTY, Tex. (KTSA News) — Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he is confident that Texas will remain a Republican-led state through the 2020 elections.

Abbott told KTSA’s Jack Riccardi that metrics and research he does for his own political purposes show Republicans will retain majorities in both state legislative chambers, and the state’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation.  He also said Sen. John Cornyn will win reelection and President Donald Trump will win Texas easily this election cycle.

When asked by Riccardi about the 3 million more registered voters in Texas compared to 2016 — presumably, many who may have moved to Texas from other states — and if he was concerned what that means for Republicans, Abbott said the trends Texas has seen in recent years will remain steady.

The governor was specifically asked if there were any concerns about California transplants changing the political picture in the state.

Abbott said there isn’t and shared some research as to why that was the case.

He had polling done during the 2018 Texas Senate election to look specifically at how people who moved from California to Texas were voting.

“We asked, ‘Did you vote for Beto [O’Rourke] or did you vote for Ted Cruz,'” the governor said, noting his name was also included as part of that survey.  “Then we also asked if you have moved from Texas from California.”

The results?

“Ted Cruz received 58 percent of the vote of the people who moved from California,” said Abbott.  “Ted Cruz got a higher percent of the vote of the people who moved from California than he did from native-born Texans.”

The senator got 50.9 percent of the overall vote in that election.

The numbers made sense to the governor.

“Listen, if you like big government, if you like big government spending and you like all of these liberal ideas like what you see in places like Seattle and Portland and Sacramento and San Francisco, you wouldn’t leave it,” explained Abbott.  “And you wouldn’t come to Texas.”