CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott officially filed for re-election Tuesday, sitting beside a stack of 20,000 signatures from Texans he says want him to run.
"I am running for re-election so that we can continue to secure the border, support our police, and keep Texas the best state for business," Abbott said in a news release.
If Abbott gets past two Republican primary challengers in Don Huffines and Allen West, it sets up a potential general election showdown against Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke.
Abbott joined 3News Tuesday to talk about the many problems the state faces, including improving the power grid after the deadly winter storm.
Abbott said there are three ways Texas is preparing for another winter storm.
"One is that we now have 15% more power-generating capacity than we did last February. Second, by December the 1st, which is next week, all of the power generators will be winterized unlike last year, and third that is there’s a different approach that’s being taken by ERCOT," Abbott said.
Abbott said ERCOT this year will take a proactive approach, as opposed to a reactive approach.
"What happened last year, the leaders at ERCOT, they waited until the crisis occurred before they took the action that was necessary to fix the problem," Abbot said. "And what ERCOT is doing is a proactive approach, working days in advance of any potential storm, working for the worst case situation possible to make sure that they will have summoned all the power that’s needed to make sure that we will have the power grid working throughout however severe a storm may be.”
A new Dallas Morning News/UT Tyler poll shows Abbott has a 6-point lead over O'Rourke.
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