Gov. Abbott won’t bowl you over with political charm. He’s steady. That’s good for Texas

If you were going to talk to the governor of a state — one that boasts the second highest GDP in the country, more Fortune 500 companies than any other state and a bevy of renowned sports teams — you might expect to be intimidated or thunderstruck, bowled over with charm and magnanimity.

After all, that’s how people feel when they meet a lot of politicians, including Beto O’ Rourke, who is, despite his overdone shtick, boyishly charming and unnervingly astute, reading a room with accuracy and remembering names with ease. (Too bad most of his policy ideas are terrible.

With Greg Abbott, you will not be enchanted or slammed with smarmy pizzazz. You’re going to leave well-informed and just slightly impressed. He’s exactly the kind of leader Texas needs right now.

He likes talking about facts and data. Premises and nuance are important to him. Nuance is hard to convey in politics. Flashy headlines sell stories.

When I interviewed Abbott last week at the Governor’s Mansion, just a couple weeks ahead of his showdown with O’Rourke for a third term, the Republican looked refreshed and relaxed, confident and eager to converse. It was a contrast with O’Rourke, who days earlier looked tired and sounded hoarse from relentless campaigning a few days prior.

MORE LIKE A LAWYER THAN A POLITICIAN

Even after years in politics, Abbott still sounds more like a lawyer than a politician.

Take the border, the most pressing issue for many Texans and for the state at large as a security measure and on immigration policy. “Has Operation Lone Star failed?” I asked him, referring to his extensive border security initiative.

“If you would, that premise is misperceived and misunderstood,” Abbott said. “Prior to Operation Lone Star, Texas had the lowest border crossings in at least three decades because of a number of policies Trump put in place. Policies that include Title 42, Remain in Mexico, Catch and Release,” and others.

Two and a half years ago, thanks to the Trump administration, Abbott said, there was “a clear attitude that there are legal ways people can immigrate to the United States. If you want to do it, do it legally.” That doesn’t exist now.

Abbott threads President Joe Biden’s border approach with his proposed solutions. “The Biden administration’s open border policies have opened the floodgates to people coming from across the world. That’s what’s led to the skyrocketing. At the same time, there are clear and measurable effects of what Operation Lone Star has been able to achieve that has literally saved lives.”

Off the top of his head, he lists several examples, few of which are widely reported. “Operation Lone Star has collectively, with the National Guard, Department of Public Safety, and other law enforcement, seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, woman, and child, in the United States,” the governor said.

Abbott continues with examples: “Part of Operation Lone Star is to arrest people who are trespassing. Last week [the Department of Public Safety] arrested someone from Honduras who, when they ran the background check, found out he was wanted for murder in Honduras. He’s not the only one they have arrested, who was wanted for murder elsewhere.”

ABORTION LAW’S EFFECT ON EMERGENCY CARE FOR WOMEN

Another issue that Abbott has been excoriated over and dubbed heartless, sexist, misogynist and more: Signing an abortion law that doesn’t allow for rape and incest exceptions and that seems to leave the medical community unclear about a life-threatening pregnancy emergency actually is. I tell him about rare reports that a woman can miscarry and struggle to receive immediate aid because her dying, unborn baby’s heart was still beating.

Abbott has heard such stories, too; this really bothers him, and he wonders how this can be remedied — not for his career, but to right a misconception, he argues, that his party doesn’t care about women.

“People hear us talking about protecting the life of the child, but the life of the mother is just as precious,” he said. “It’s a top priority of mine to provide greater clarification in greater detail about what it means to protect the life of the mother. There has been ambiguity about what that means.”

That doesn’t mean ectopic pregnancies, which are not abortions, but gray areas such as infections. Still, he “doesn’t want there to be any misunderstandings,” Abbott said. “All that needs to be clarified. We want women to get the healthcare they need to protect their lives.”

After asking Abbott a handful of pressing questions, one becomes a little more enlightened: Did you know the state doesn’t assess or raise property taxes? Abbott said this is so important to Texans he will buy down the tax rate, presumably by using a large state budget surplus to boost school funding. Local districts could then slash their property tax collections.

ABBOTT’S FOCUS ON POLICY

Abbott has to move on, but he seems reluctant to do so. Policy is something the lawyer in him loves. In the end, there is no “wow” moment.

Maybe there doesn’t need to be. It doesn’t seem like Texas needs a show pony or a circus right now. It needs leaders with steady resolve and clear answers. We need to maintain progress on issues such as life, liberty, the pandemic and guns but head in slightly different directions on other concerns, such as education.

The governor, who has used a wheelchair since an accident nearly 40 years ago, moves about seamlessly, without anyone opening doors for him. If Abbott is tortured by agonizing months of therapy that got him to a place where he eventually earned a law degree, became the attorney general of Texas, tried three cases at the Supreme Court, then served as governor for two terms, he doesn’t speak of it.

You get the impression the tragedy instilled in him the kind of quiet grit that propels one through the hard times in life — the battles, as it were.

In the first hallway of the governor’s mansion there’s a gorgeous painting, “Fall of the Alamo.” The Governor’s Mansion has to be the only one in the union that makes a painting of a battle the first thing a visitor sees. The message is clear, even if extremely cliche: The best things in life are worth fighting for.

Greg Abbott already knows this, and maybe this is why he enters a room with an understated, mysterious swagger rather than a boisterous, ubiquitous presence. Maybe this is why when you talk to the governor of Texas, you’ll learn more in five minutes than you would in an hour watching the History Channel.

It works for him, and it should work for Texans, too.