Over nearly 12 years as governor, Greg Abbott spent billions of dollars on National Guard deployments, migrant arrests and border barriers, according to the Texas Tribune. Voters on Election Day chose Democrats Gina Hinojosa and Nathan Johnson to replace Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Hinojosa is the first Mexican American elected governor of Texas. Johnson is the first Democrat elected attorney general since 1994.
Both Democrats have criticized Abbott's immigration policies. Paxton's office defended those policies in federal court. Democrats also regained support from voters in border counties, particularly the Rio Grande Valley, which had shifted toward Donald Trump two years earlier.
Before the election, business owners said arrests and deportations of undocumented people left some construction companies short of workers. The Tribune reported that the results give Democrats an opportunity to reshape Texas's approach to immigration enforcement.