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The Blast: Let the musical chairs begin [1]
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Date: 2025-03
Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar will be the next chancellor of the Texas A&M System, opening a high-profile statewide office to a field of eager potential candidates.
Already, Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick has announced her candidacy after rumors that she would consider it. Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Don Huffines, R-Dallas, has also jumped in.
Capitol insiders say several current Republican senators are in the mix. There’s Paul Bettencourt of Houston, Kelly Hancock of North Richland Hills and Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham. The Texan’s Brad Johnson says Tan Parker of Flower Mound is considering a run.
Hancock and Kolkhorst would have to give up their seats to run for comptroller, but Bettencourt and Parker aren’t up for reelection until 2028 and are free to shoot their shot. For what it’s worth, Craddick isn’t up for reelection till 2030.
More pressing than who will run in 2026 is who will Gov. Greg Abbott choose to serve in the interim. Picking from the field of contenders would give someone a leg-up in the primary. To prevent that, Abbott could preserve a level playing field by picking a holdover who won’t run for election.
The Blast has heard from three sources that Abbott is considering his deputy chief of staff Angela Colmenero. An assistant attorney general to Abbott from 2009 to 2014, Colmenero joined him in the governor’s office in 2018. Abbott also named Colmenero as acting attorney general for a few months while Ken Paxton was suspended during his impeachment proceedings in 2023.
It’s a move Abbott has pulled before. He went in-house when he picked general counsel James Sullivan to be the newest Texas Supreme Court justice, slotting behind now-Chief Justice Jimmy Blacklock. Like Sullivan, Blacklock was Abbott’s general counsel immediately preceding his appointment to the bench.
Hegar will take over the reins from Chancellor John Sharp, who will retire in June after more than 13 years on the job. But getting appointed A&M System chancellor doesn’t mean Hegar is gone from political life forever.
Hegar, 54, is sitting on a campaign war chest of $10.3 million, should he ever decide to run for state office again. Controlling the state’s purse strings was one way to get introduced to the state’s top spenders, and being A&M chancellor is another way to meet big donors.
Still, Hegar leaving is expected to kick off a cascade of campaigns as people run for Hegar’s office and others run to succeed those people, whether in 2026 or in a special election to succeed the future winner.
The Texas comptroller of public accounts becomes only the second major statewide-elected office to open up since 2014. The first was land commissioner, which George P. Bush gave up when he unsuccessfully tried to primary Paxton in 2022. With as many candidates as there are considering a comptroller run, that race looks to be more competitive.
Is now a good time to mention that the 2026 primary is less than a year away?
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