Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott publicized the endorsements of 11 Democratic sheriffs. Three of them denied ever endorsing him.
Zapata County Sheriff Ramon Montes, Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, and Webb County Sheriff Marin Cuellar all publicly announced that they were not endorsing Abbot after he posted them on his endorsement list on Monday. While Cuellar has been removed from the list, Montes and Martinez are still on it.
“Please remove my name from this for the Governor Abbott. This is Sheriff Martin Cuellar. The governor endorsed Tano my brother’s opponent,” Cuellar wrote in a text screenshot he posted on Facebook. Cuellar is the brother of Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar, who is currently running for Texas’s 28th House district.
“I want to make it unequivocally clear that I have not issued a political endorsement of Governor Greg Abbott, and I did not authorize anyone to use my name as an endorsement,” Martinez wrote in his own official statement. “I made it clear to the Sheriff who submitted the endorsement that I could not endorse Governor Abbott. I also made it clear that no one from the Governor’s office ever contacted me regarding an endorsement, and that I do not need anyone speaking on my behalf.”
Sheriff Montes’s office told Border Report that he “is not endorsing anyone at this time.”
Recent polling has Abbott sitting just three points ahead of his Democratic challenger, former state Representative Gina Hinosoja.