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Former President Donald Trump apparently believes that endorsing local GOP candidates and hinting at pardons for Jan. 6 insurrectionists will win votes from his vision of red-or-dead Texas – should he run again in 2024.
Trump told the crowd at Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Conroe during a rally Saturday, Jan. 29, what he expects from them.
"Nine months from now, the people of this state are going to send a thundering message," Trump said, according to Houston Public Media's Sunday, Jan. 30 coverage of the rally. "You're going to tell them 'Don't mess with Texas,' because Texas is never, ever turning blue."
Trump also publicly endorsed Republican politicians up for re-election vying in Texas, including Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Abbott and Paxton, as well as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller who also are up for re-election, spoke to the crowd before Trump appeared.
Abbott said during his remarks that he was, "the only governor in the history of the United States to build a wall on our border."
Abbott's construction of Trump's border wall has continued with state funding and public donations and, during his speech, the governor said construction is being handled by the same contractors proposed by Trump's administration.
Abbott went into the rally expecting great things.
"It's going to be a great night in Conroe with President Trump!" Abbott said in a pre-rally Twitter post. "Texans are fired up to keep the Lone Star State RED."
Abbott's post included a photo of attendees already massing at the fairgrounds before dark, well before the rally was scheduled to begin.
As part of his hour-and-a-half speech, Trump repeated false claims about voter fraud costing him re-election in 2020 election. Trump lost his bid for a second term in office during the 2020 General Elections but, despite that, tried a number of strategies to pressure the nation into allowing him to remain in office.
Trump said that priorities for a possible presidential run in 2024 would include an immediate ban of critical race theory and making sure that the U.S. Capital insurrectionists are treated "fairly."
"If I run and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly," he said. "And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons."
Trump pardoned no Jan. 6 insurrectionists before he left office in January of last year, despite expectations of the insurrectionists and others at the time that he would.
Trump's Conroe Rally came about a month and a half after his appearance at the Toyota Center in Houston on Dec. 18, during former Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly's "History Tour." The joint appearance was part of a four-city tour that wrapped up with a Dallas appearance on Dec. 19.