Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas will endorse former President Donald Trump for his party’s 2024 nomination when the two teams meet Sunday near the U.S.-Mexico border, Texas GOP sources confirmed to Fox News.
The former president will join the governor in Edinburg, Texas, for Abbott’s annual pre-Thanksgiving tradition of delivering tamales to Texas Department of Public Safety troops and Texas National Guard members deployed along the southern border under the governor’s Operation Lone Star program.
Trump endorsed Abbott in 2021, as the conservative governor was up for re-election and facing multiple primary challenges from the right. Abbott overwhelmingly won renomination in March last year before comfortably defeating his Democratic rival, former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, last November to secure a third term in Texas.
The matchup continues in Iowa, where DeSantis and Haley are competing for second place behind Trump
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump in 2021. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via AP Pool/File)
Abbott was grateful for Trump’s early endorsement last cycle, according to those in the governor’s political orbit, and now he appears to be returning the favor.
As the first vote approaches in the Republican presidential nomination race, this candidate remains in the driver’s seat
Trump, who is running for the White House for the third time in a row, is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination, with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley currently competing for second place by a wide margin. A place at the polls.
Republican presidential candidate Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, left, speaks during the Family Leader’s Thanksgiving Family Forum while Republican presidential candidate businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, center, and Republican presidential candidate former United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, right, see to Friday in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Nebergall)
Trump’s lead expanded over the spring and summer as he made history as the first former or sitting president in American history to be charged with a crime. Trump’s four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and Fulton District Court in Georgia on charges he tried to overturn his loss in the 2020 presidential election — have only increased his support among Republican voters.
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The former president’s trip to Texas to meet with Abbott near the border will highlight the combustible issue of illegal immigration and border security. The issue has long been top of mind for Republican voters, and for two and a half years GOP leaders and politicians have sharply criticized President Biden’s administration over the surge in migrants crossing the border.
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump speaks during a rally Saturday in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Bryon Holgrave)
Trump, if he returns to the White House, has pledged to launch the largest mass deportation campaign in American history, and will reimpose the travel ban in addition to his 2019 “Remain in Mexico” program, which forced out non-Mexican asylum seekers aiming to enter Mexico. The United States is at the southern border to wait in Mexico to resolve their cases. Trump also said he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born in the United States to immigrants who entered the country illegally, an idea he proposed during his administration.
Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign has criticized Trump’s “scary” proposals, arguing that they violate the US Constitution, the nation’s values and immigrants’ rights.
Border security has also been a key issue for Abbott, who has repeatedly sparred with the Biden administration.
The Texas Legislature, during a special session called by the governor, this week passed a controversial measure allowing state law enforcement officials to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Democrats mocked the tough immigration bill.
Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more in the Fox News Digital Election Center.
