Democrats Gina Hinojosa and Nathan Johnson won Texas's governor and attorney general races on Election Day, defeating Abbott's bid to remain governor. Hinojosa is the first Mexican American elected governor of Texas. Johnson is the first Democrat elected attorney general since 1994. He will succeed Ken Paxton, whose office defended the governor's immigration policies in federal court.
Abbott spent nearly 12 years as governor and spent billions of dollars on state-led immigration enforcement. That spending paid for National Guard deployments, migrant arrests and border barriers. Both Hinojosa and Johnson have criticized his immigration policies.
The new officials will inherit a system built through spending, state laws, federal partnerships and court rulings. Those could limit how quickly they can change it. Before the election, some business owners said arrests and deportations of undocumented people had left some construction companies short of workers.