Mary Trump Says Greg Abbott Is Dodging Donald Trump's San Antonio Rally

Mary Trump said Wednesday that Texas Governor Greg Abbott was dodging her uncle by skipping a Donald Trump rally in San Antonio. Abbott's campaign said he had a scheduling conflict. His events on the dates reported are documented; why he skipped the rally is Mary Trump's interpretation, not established fact.

The president's niece tied Abbott's absence to a wider retreat. She cited a Reuters review that, as she described it, found Republican candidates in 41 of 62 competitive House and Senate races have broken with Trump on policy or played down their ties to him, with the November 3 midterms less than four weeks away.

"It appears that Donald's endorsement has become toxic," Mary Trump said on The Mary Trump Podcast.

Greg Abbott Skips Donald Trump's Rally for Ken Paxton

The San Antonio stop was Trump's third trip to Texas in a month. He was there to help Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Republican Senate nominee, who is running against Democratic state Representative James Talarico. On Tuesday, Trump posted that "my rallies are saving the Republican party again."

Abbott stayed away. Mary Trump read the statement his campaign gave: "Because of the schedule that I run where I go to multiple cities a day doing events like this, I already have events like this scheduled that day, and I will not be able to make it."

The governor's public schedule included a law enforcement roundtable in San Antonio on Tuesday, and on Wednesday a medical facility dedication in Jasper and then a Republican Party event in College Station, Fox 7 Austin reported. FOX 26 Houston's Greg Groogan said, "Instead, Abbott is busy elsewhere, as in the land of political survival."

Mary Trump did not accept it. She called the statement "just code for, 'Please do not put me within 39 and a half feet of Donald Trump because he is toxic, and I am a danger of losing because Republicans in Texas, even Texas, can't stand him.'"

She gave two reasons for Abbott's absence. The first, she said, is that "thanks to Donald, Abbott is in the fight of his political life, and he needs to campaign relentlessly and constantly until election day." The second: "nobody wants to be seen with Donald."

Is Greg Abbott in a 'Dead Heat'?

Recent polling points to a close race. A ReconMR/Siena Research Institute survey of 614 likely voters, taken September 8–11, put Hinojosa ahead 49 percent to 45 percent, within its margin of error of 4.3 points. In the same poll, 62 percent of respondents still expected Abbott to win.

In PolitiKool's polling average, Abbott leads 47.5 percent to 46.4 percent. Talarico leads Paxton by 3.8 points in PolitiKool's Texas Senate average. That is a tight race in a state Trump won by 14 points in 2024, as Mary Trump pointed out, which has forced Republicans to spend money on races they could once ignore.

Nationally, 37.4 percent of Americans approve of Trump's job performance and 59.5 percent disapprove, according to PolitiKool's polling average. A Reuters/Ipsos poll put his approval among registered voters at 32 percent, Mary Trump said.

Mary Trump Cites Reuters Count of GOP Candidates Keeping Distance

Mary Trump said the Reuters review looked at voting records, public statements and campaign materials. "Reuters found candidates in 41 of 62 competitive congressional races taking that approach ahead of the November 3rd midterms," she said. That works out to about two-thirds, which is how she described it.

How 2026 Compares With 2022

Mary Trump said a Republican avoiding the president over a scheduling conflict "would have been unheard of, unthinkable four years ago."

It is a familiar move for the party that holds the White House in a midterm year, though. In 2022, President Joe Biden mostly skipped campaign rallies after Labor Day as vulnerable Democrats kept their distance from his administration.