Longtime Conservatives In Texas Consider The Unthinkable: Voting For A Democrat

August 20, 2026 3:38 PM ET Rural Texas conservatives are fed up with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over his failure to address concerns surrounding data centers, power lines, pollution, and strain on the electrical grid and water supplies. Shawn Nanny, a Republican county commissioner in West Texas, told Politico that the state’s proposed data centers and plans to install thousands of miles of new, extra-high-voltage power lines were the “straws that broke the camel’s back.” (RELATED: Abbott’s Texas Tech Boom Is Built On Broken Promises)“What I’m hearing is, ‘Yeah, we’ll have a Democrat in there and grit our teeth and bear it, but hopefully we’ll come out of it the following election,’” Nanny said. “They’re so upset; they just want [Abbott] out.”Abbott proposed legislation in June that would