Governor Holds Key to Comptroller Race
with Appointee Who Could Run in 2026
Capitol Inside
March 13, 2025
Governor Greg Abbott is the wild card in an open race for state comptroller that features a pair of Republicans who are relatively well known among the Texas electorate but may have little chance of winning if the leader of the nation's largest red state throws his massive muscle behind someone else.
Former state Senate member Don Huffines and Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick entered the competition on Friday almost immediately after Comptroller Glenn Hegar emerged as the sole contender for the chancellor's position at the Texas A&M University System.
Huffines hit the ground running with endorsements that he's already corralled from big-name Republicans like Houston furniture dealer Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale, GOP megadonor Doug Deason of Dallas and U.S. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Huffines, whose campaign slogan is a DOGE TEXAS vow, scored a plug on Thursday from Vivek Ramaswamy, biotech magnate who'd been a member of the government efficiency commission that President Donald Trump tasked Elon Musk to run for him.
A former candidate for president, Ramaswamy reportedly clashed with Musk before the exit from the effort. Ramaswamy said he'd "gotten to know" Huffines and was proud to endorse him for comptroller in the Lone Star State. "He’s a bold, no-BS conservative," Ramaswamy said in a post on X.
The former lawmaker from Dallas added Rafael Cruz, Matt Rinaldi and the Texas Right to Life on Wednesday to a list of supporters that he's amassed in the past three days for a contest that won't actually be open until Hegar steps down in the next month or two after current Aggie Chancellor John Sharp rides off into retirement.
Craddick brings a famous Texas political family name to the comptroller's fight as the daughter of former state House speaker Tom Craddick - the Legislature's longest-serving member who's the current chairman of the Transportation Committee in the Capitol's west wing. The younger Craddick has been a an elected member of the commission that regulates oil and gas in Texas despite a title that conjures visions of trains and tracks in the days of yore.
Craddick won a third six-year term on the RRC in November - and she has the luxury of keeping the current post in the event of a loss in the quest for comptroller in 2026. Huffines in contrast has nothing to lose but money after an unsuccessful a race for governor in 2022 four years after his ouster by a Democrat from a Senate seat that he held for one four-year term.
Huffines is a wealthy developer who has the ability to bankroll his own campaign. Craddick will be relying largely on support from the business establishment and energy interests that she's regulated as a railroad commissioner.
But Craddick's best shot in the Hegar replacement derby would be with an appointment from the governor to the remainder of the future Texas A&M leader's term in a development that would give her the inherent advantages of incumbency in a potential crowded primary field next year.
Abbott has kept the cards to the chest on his plans for the comptroller's competition up to now. The governor has several options that he could take on the upcoming opening and subsequent campaign. Abbott has a history of filling high-ranking positions in the executive and judicial branches with people who've served on his staff at the statehouse. Abbott could appoint a current or former aide to be Hegar's successor as a placeholder if that person isn't planning to seek the job at the polls in 2026.
But the governor could choose someone for the vacancy who he plans to support in the GOP primary election in an attempt to ensure that he has an unwavering loyalist in the job that's charged with projecting and collecting revenue for the state and making sure its employees are paid.
Craddick might be the only one of the two existing candidates for comptroller with a realistic chance at an appointment to the post as rocket fuel for the campaign. Huffines has been one of Abbott's most vocal critics in the Texas GOP - having ripped him repeatedly as a candidate for governor himself three years ago.
Huffines finished third in the gubernatorial primary in 2022 behind the incumbent who advanced to the general election with 66 percent of the vote and former state party boss Allen West as the runner-up. West and Huffines were eliminated when they received 12.3 percent and 12 percent of the primary vote respectively.
more to come ...
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