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The Blast - June 18, 2025 [1]

['The Texas Tribune']

Date: 2025-06 

The Blast is taking the day off on Friday. We’ll be back in your inboxes on Monday.

THE HANCOCK CALCULUS

State Sen. Kelly Hancock could resign as early as this week to set himself up for an appointment and a campaign for Texas comptroller.

The North Richland Hills Republican is coming up on 12 years in the Senate, and sources say he’s been angling to be the next comptroller of public accounts for a while now. Hancock could resign as early as tomorrow.

Hancock’s hope has been that Gov. Greg Abbott would appoint him when the outgoing comptroller, Glenn Hegar, leaves to become the next Texas A&M University System chancellor at the start of next month.

But as Bloomberg Law’s Ryan Autullo reported today, Abbott is not allowed to appoint a sitting senator to a position that requires Senate confirmation. The workaround, as reported by Autullo, would be for Hancock to resign and take another job in the comptroller’s office, setting him up for an interim appointment. That show of support from Abbott could give him a leg up in the primary in 2026 — which has only become more entrenched the longer he’s waited.

Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick and former state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, are already in the race, and Huffines has been raking in endorsements from activists. Around the time word about a potential Hancock campaign reached the public last month, Huffines picked up his biggest endorsement yet, from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

But if Abbott does appoint Hancock in the interim, he’ll presumably have Abbott’s support for the primary.

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[1] Url: https://thetexastribune.beehiiv.com/p/the-blast-june-18-2025-c8bc4fed44e26b76

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