Greg Abbott

Greg Abbott
Abbott in 2024
48th Governor of Texas
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2015
Lieutenant	Dan Patrick
Preceded by	Rick Perry
Chair of the Republican Governors Association
In office November 21, 2019 – December 9, 2020
Preceded by	Pete Ricketts
Succeeded by	Doug Ducey
50th Attorney General of Texas
In office December 2, 2002 – January 5, 2015
Governor	Rick Perry
Preceded by	John Cornyn
Succeeded by	Ken Paxton
Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
In office January 2, 1996 – June 6, 2001[1]
Appointed by	George W. Bush
Preceded by	Jack Hightower
Succeeded by	Xavier Rodriguez
Personal details
Born	Gregory Wayne Abbott (1957-11-13) November 13, 1957 (age 67) Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Cecilia Phalen ​ (m. 1981)​
Children	1
Residence	Governor's Mansion
Education	University of Texas at Austin (BBA) Vanderbilt University (JD)
Signature

Gregory Wayne Abbott (born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist serving as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 50th attorney general of Texas from 2002 to 2015 and as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001.

Abbott was the third Republican to serve as attorney general of Texas since the Reconstruction era. He was elected to that office with 57% of the vote in 2002 and reelected with 60% in 2006 and 64% in 2010, becoming the longest-serving Texas attorney general in state history, with 12 years of service. Before becoming attorney general, Abbott was a justice of the Texas Supreme Court, a position to which he was appointed in 1995 by then-governor George W. Bush. Abbott won a full term in 1998 with 60% of the vote. As attorney general, he successfully advocated for the Texas State Capitol to display the Ten Commandments in the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case Van Orden v. Perry, and unsuccessfully defended the state's ban on same-sex marriage. He was involved in numerous lawsuits against the Barack Obama administration, seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act and the administration's environmental regulations.

Elected in 2014, Abbott is the first Texas governor and third governor of a U.S. state to use a wheelchair, the others being Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Wallace. As governor, Abbott supported the first Donald Trump administration and has promoted a conservative agenda, including measures against abortion such as the Texas Heartbeat Act, lenient gun laws, opposition to illegal immigration, support for law enforcement funding, and election reform. In response to the power crisis following a February 2021 winter storm, Abbott called for reforms to Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and signed a bill requiring power plant weatherization. During the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas, Abbott opposed implementing face mask and vaccine mandates, while blocking local governments, businesses, and other organizations from implementing their own. He has also made a priority of fighting illegal immigration, starting Operation Lone Star in 2021.

After Washington Governor Jay Inslee retires on January 15, 2025, Abbott is expected to become the longest-serving governor in the United States.