Abbott visits moving company for reelection campaign, pokes fun at CA: 'Moving trailers in CA are all going elsewhere'

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) made a pitstop in Houston to campaign for reelection on Jan. 18.

The governor paid a visit to Road Runner Moving & Storage in southwest Houston. He obtained endorsements from 18 statewide and Houston trade groups, according to KHOU.

According to a recent U-Haul survey, Texas has ranked as the most favorable state for people to move to. California is the No. 1 state that people are moving away from. 

"U-Haul has run out of U-Haul moving trailers in California," Abbott said, according to KHOU. "They're all going elsewhere."

Tesla and Oracle are among the slew of high-profile companies that moved their headquarters to the Lone Star State, per KHOU.

“Low taxes and pro-business puts Texas as the No. 1 in the nation for commercial real estate development, adding $65 billion to the Texas economy and 428,000 jobs," Krys Weyand, with the Texas Land Developers Association said, per KHOU.

The governor asserted that the state continued to experience economic growth during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to KHOU.

The Texas governor has long touted the economy of Texas, once making it a joke that he was better than authoritarian leaders like Putin.

“During and after COVID, Texas has grown now to the ninth-largest economy in the entire world," Abbott said, according to KHOU. “Larger than countries like Australia and Russia and that makes me more powerful than Putin.”

KHOU reports that Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat running against Abbott to take over his seat as governor, welcomed supporters to call in to prompt discussion on the same day that Abbott visited Houston.

"Here’s how I’d fix the grid and lower utility bills: Weatherize the grid AND gas supply, connect to the national grid, energy efficiency programs, backup generation at critical facilities, rate relief for those paying the #AbbottTax (utility rate hikes from the grid failure)," O'Rourke said in a Jan. 18 tweet.

O'Rourke ran against incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the 2018 midterm elections. Although Cruz won the race, it was only by a slim margin in the closest political race in 40 years for Texas.