(1). 1:His political balancing act reflects his enigmatic figure. 2:He is much less charismatic than his immediate predecessors, Rick Perry and George W. Bush, and—deep into his second gubernatorial term—less well-known. 3:Having ascended to the governorship via the state Supreme Court bench and attorney-general’s office, he has never faced a tough election. 4:Many Texans have no idea even that he is wheelchair-bound, owing to a freak tree-fall accident he suffered as a teenager— though his courage in battling back from that tragedy is his most admirable quality. 5:Politically, too, Mr Abbott has managed to remain usefully indeterminate.
(2). 1:He took office as a conservative hardliner—boasting of the 31 times he had sued the Obama administration and soon enough echoing Mr Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. 2:This earned him credit with a state party that had veered hard to the right. 3:Dan Patrick, leader of the Texan senate and an advocate of American grandparents risking covid-19 infection for the sake of the economy— even unto death—is its most recognisable face. 4:Yet Mr Abbott knows Mr Patrick’s politics is another sort of suicide mission in a state that last had a white majority over a decade ago. 5:The 2018 mid-terms, in which the Democrats flipped 14 seats in the state legislature (and Mr Patrick survived a surprisingly fierce challenge) underlined that reality. 6:Having won his own re-election with ease, Mr Abbott used his increased heft in the party to help launch one of the most quietly impressive Republican rethinks of the Trump era. 7:The state’s next biennial legislative session, held last year, was devoted to property tax and bipartisan education funding, not—as previously—to bathroom bills.