Texas governor’s race on track to set records

Former Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, was the longest serving governor of Texas. He served for just over 14 years.

There are no term limits for governor in Texas.

If Democrat Gina Hinojosa wins, she will be the first Hispanic female and third female elected governor in state history. 

The last time Texans elected a Democratic and a woman as governor was in 1990.

Ann Richards was elected as Texas’ 45th governor and served one term. 

The first woman elected governor was in 1924, controversial Democrat Miriam (Ma) Ferguson. She served two, two-year terms, being reelected in 1932.  

In previous elections, Abbott has won by large margins. This is the first election of his career that polling shows Abbott leading by a few points. In most polls, he is statistically tied. 

Abbott has raised the most campaign money in state history of $122 million. Hinojosa has raised $39 million, according to the latest campaign finance reports.  

This election, a record more than 19 million Texans have registered to vote. A record more than 5.7 million have voted in early voting, according to Secretary of State records. Early voting goes through Oct. 30.

Texas has a history of gubernatorial records, some marked by scandal. 

Since 1846, the majority of governors have been Democrats, 39. 

One was officially nonpartisan, Elisha Marshall Pease, who was appointed provisional governor by General Philip Sheridan during Reconstruction after the Civil War. He took office on Aug. 8, 1867, and resigned Sept. 30, 1869. 

Pease helped organize the Republican Party in Texas in 1867. He is one of only three governors who served two nonconsecutive terms. The others were Ma Ferguson and Texas’ second Republican governor, William Clements, Jr. (1979-1983; 1987-1991). 

The first Republican governor was Edmund Davis, who served one term (1870-1874). He fought against an illegal election and Democrats taking over the state capitol in 1873. He also declared martial law in 1871 in Walker County during Reconstruction.

Only five Republicans have served as governor: Davis, Clements, George W. Bush (1995-2000), Perry (2000-2015) and Abbott, who was first elected in 2014.

The only American to break multiple records as governor and president in Texas and U.S. history is Sam Houston. Houston is the only American to be elected governor of two states, Tennessee and Texas, and twice as the president of the Republic of Texas (1836-1838; 1841-1844). Texas was a republic from 1836-1846 after Houston led Texas to victory in its battle for independence against Mexico in 1836.  

Houston was one of the first two Texans elected to the U.S. Senate after Texas joined the union in 1846. He served in the Texas House and for two terms as governor. He is the only Texas governor to declare an invasion before the state legislature, The Center Square reported.  

Houston was nearly nominated for the presidency by the National Union Party in 1860. If he had won, he would have run against Abraham Lincoln for president. 

Houston opposed Texas seceding from the United States on Feb. 1, 1961. After refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the Confederacy, he was forced to resign. His lieutenant governor, Edward Clark, served as governor for eight months to fill the vacant seat. 

He lost a close election to Francis Richard Lubbock, who served two years before resigning to serve in the Confederate Army. While he was governor, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Andrew Jackson Hamilton as the Military Governor of Texas during the Civil War in November 1862.

After the Confederacy fell, Texas’ last Civil War governor, Pendleton Murrah, vacated the office in June 1865. He, Clark and other Confederate leaders fled to Mexico, fearful the federal government would retaliate against them.

President Andrew Johnson reappointed Hamilton as provisional governor in June 1865. Union Army soldiers were sent to occupy Texas and free slaves on June 19, 1865. For nine years, Texas had provisional governors during Reconstruction. Texas rejoined the union on March 30, 1870.

The only governor to be impeached in Texas history was Ma Ferguson’s husband, James Ferguson, who was elected governor ten years before she was. He was impeached on ten charges of corruption and misuse of taxpayer funds. He resigned the day before the Texas Senate issued its judgement officially removing him from office in 1917 and barring him from holding any future office.