Greg Abbott

**Gregory Wayne Abbott** ( ; born November 13, 1957) is an American politician, attorney, and jurist. He has been the 48th and current governor of Texas since 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party. From 2002 to 2015, Abbott was the 50th attorney general of Texas.

## Early life

Abbott was born on November 13, 1957, in Wichita Falls, Texas, of English descent.

In 1981, Abbott earned a Bachelor of Business Administration in finance from the University of Texas at Austin, where he was a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity and the Young Republicans Club. He met his wife, Cecilia Phalen, while attending UT Austin. The two married in 1981. In 1984, he earned his Juris Doctor degree from the Vanderbilt University Law School.

Abbott went into private practice, working for Butler and Binion, LLP between 1984 and 1992.

On July 14, 1984, at age 26, Abbott was paralyzed below the waist when an oak tree fell on him while he was jogging in Houston, after a storm. Two steel rods were put in his spine and he has used a wheelchair ever since.

## Political career

Abbott was the third Republican to serve as attorney general of Texas since the Reconstruction era. He was elected to that office with 57% of the vote in 2002 and reelected with 60% in 2006 and 64% in 2010, becoming the longest-serving attorney general in state history, with 12 years of service.

As attorney general, he successfully supported the Texas State Capitol to show the Ten Commandments in the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case _Van Orden v. Perry,_ and unsuccessfully defended the state's ban on same-sex marriage. He was also known for going against President Barack Obama and the Affordable Care Act.

Abbott was elected governor in 2014. Abbott is the first Texas governor and third governor of a U.S. state to use a wheelchair, the others being Franklin D. Roosevelt and George Wallace. As governor, Abbott supported the first Donald Trump administration.

During his time as governor, he supported Texas's total abortion ban, making it easier to buy guns, support for law enforcement funding, and election reform.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Abbott was against forcing face mask and vaccine mandates. He has also made a priority of fighting illegal immigration, starting Operation Lone Star in 2021.

Greg Abbott asks the highest court in the state of Texas in August 2025, to remove the Democratic leader of the House of Representatives from office, to end the opposition blocking the redrawing of the U.S. House of Representatives maps, requested by President Donald Trump.

## Other websites

- Profile at the _Texas Tribune_
- Coverage at the _Texas Observer_

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **name**: Greg Abbott
- **image**: Greg Abbott at NASA 2024 (cropped).jpg
- **caption**: Abbott in 2024
- **alt**: Abbott in 2024
- **order**: 48th
- **office**: Governor of Texas
- **lieutenant**: Dan Patrick (politician), Dan Patrick
- **term start**: January 20, 2015
- **predecessor**: Rick Perry
- **office1**: Chair of the Republican Governors Association
- **term start1**: November 21, 2019
- **term end1**: December 9, 2020
- **predecessor1**: Pete Ricketts
- **successor1**: Doug Ducey
- **office2**: 50th Texas Attorney General, Attorney General of Texas
- **governor2**: Rick Perry
- **term start2**: December 2, 2002
- **term end2**: January 5, 2015
- **predecessor2**: John Cornyn
- **successor2**: Ken Paxton
- **office3**: Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas
- **appointer3**: George W. Bush
- **term start3**: January 2, 1996
- **term end3**: June 6, 2001
- **predecessor3**: Jack Hightower
- **successor3**: Xavier Rodriguez
- **birth name**: Gregory Wayne Abbott
- **birth place**: Wichita Falls, Texas, U.S.
- **party**: Republican Party (United States), Republican Party
- **children**: Audrey Abbott
- **residence**: Texas Governor's Mansion
- **education**: University of Texas at Austin (Bachelor of Business Administration, BBA)
Vanderbilt University (Juris Doctor, JD)
- **signature**: Greg Abbott Signature.svg