Democratic gubernatorial nominee Lupe Valdez, fresh off securing her party's nomination in a runoff a week ago, is wasting little time tying the Republican incumbent, Greg Abbott, to President Donald Trump.
"He's basically a puppet for the president," Valdez, the former Dallas County sheriff, said in an interview Sunday, arguing Abbott is "trying to find favor" with Trump, particularly on issues related to the border. "He’s just following in Trump’s footsteps, and we’re strongly gonna go against that."Abbott, who is seeking a second term, has generally aligned himself with Trump on border policy, most recently heeding the president's call to send hundreds of new National Guard troops to the area. Trump has repeatedly expressed his support for Abbott's re-election bid, including last month during the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Dallas.
Still, Abbott has sought some distance from Trump in his re-election bid, particularly in his efforts to grow the 44 percent of the Hispanic vote he won in 2014. Last year, Abbott said he was confident Hispanic voters in Texas would see him and Trump as "completely independent" and warned Democrats that any money spent connecting him to Trump would be "like setting that money on fire and incinerating it."
Like many Democrats, Valdez expressed deep skepticism that Abbott would get as large a share of the Hispanic vote in November, pointing to both Trump and arguably Abbott's biggest legislative achievement in office: the state's "sanctuary cities" ban, Senate Bill 4, which seeks to punish local officials who do not fully cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
"Look, he made some very good comments when he was running for office, but look what he did when he was in office," Valdez said when
