Mark Caton

Patriots, On November 3rd, 2026, the leftists took Texas in a wave election that swept the country, the consequences of which will last generations. First, it is important to recognize my perfect wife, Mary Catherine, my partner in 39 years of blissful marriage, our five children, and our 12 grandchildren. I thank the leanest, hardest-working campaign team in Texas politics. I am so incredibly humbled by the millions of Texans who supported this campaign and believed in me. My work is for them. We won a crushing landslide in the primary and worked nonstop every single day since. I personally spent millions of dollars on this campaign, a huge percentage of a net worth that took over 40 years of hard work and sacrifice to accumulate. Don't shed a tear for Don Huffines. I had a great life before this campaign, and I will have a great life after it. I am not sad for myself, and I am not losing any sleep over an election. I am sad for the Texans who do not want to be slaves to their government. They just want to live their lives in freedom, knowing their leaders are strong and courageous. I am extremely humbled and honored to have served as Texas Comptroller, because of your support and the appointment by Governor Abbott. On August 1, 2026, I was sworn in, rejected all pay and benefits, and went straight to work bringing a private-sector mindset and incredible sense of urgency to Texas government. A full list of the Huffines Administration's accomplishments will be shared at the end of my term, as there is still much to come. For two years, at more than 500 events in every corner of this state, I warned that when Texas goes, so goes the nation. I campaigned on a simple message: 'AUDIT government. EXPOSE corruption. It's YOUR money.' I could not wait to clean out the garage, because I knew that if Republicans did not clean it out ourselves, the Democrats would use it to flip Texas blue. It turns out we were already out of time. Texas is the foundation of the national Republican Party, and now the foundation is broken. What the Huffines Administration accomplished in the first 100 days is unprecedented, and it barely scratched the surface of what I had planned. I inherited an incomprehensible mess. Sadly, the agency had not been touched since the 1990s: rife with fraud, waste, and abuse, and leaderless. Frankly, besides the reforms we made, the Democrats will find this agency and every other state agency exactly how they left them decades ago. And that tells you why Republicans lost Texas. The leftists will continue to grow government, drive up the cost of living, and rebuild the government school monopoly, chaining Texas families to failing schools with no way out. And of course, they will continue to whittle away at our virtue by replacing God with government. I am not saying any of this out of bitterness, but because we must understand our ideas did not lose on Election Day. Our failure to deliver on them did. We did this to ourselves. For 25 years, Republicans controlled everything in this state while Texans got crushed on affordability: property taxes, insurance, housing, and electricity. In Texas, you never really own your home or your land. You rent your property from the government, and the rent goes up every year. The administrative state grew unchecked, and fraud, waste, and corruption went unpunished. The Republican Party has the solutions, but our leadership lacked the courage to act. The grassroots begged, were ignored, and got basically nothing. Our officials governed from the mushy middle: desperate to stay in power, desperate for the prestige and approval of elitists and lobbyists. They served up the same stale, overcooked rhetoric instead of a bold, unified Texas First Agenda. How do you campaign on a promise you have been making for 12 years? Florida had strong leadership and survived this tsunami. Texas had 25 years of gaslighting. Texans are desperate for something different: leaders who are courageous and creative. We need businesspeople who understand risk, solve problems instead of symptoms, and know that our liberty comes from God, not the government, and that government's fundamental role is to defend it. Our culture and heritage are unique, forged with the blood of Texas patriots who understood the value of liberty. This was our political Alamo, and I know you want me to say that San Jacinto is coming. But how, and when? We lost Texas before the new national and state Democrat regimes reopen the Texas border, grant amnesty, and permanently change the demographics of this state. Liberty is fleeting. Every generation must fight for it, and the fight for Texas now belongs to the millions of grassroots patriots who love this state and will never give up on it. Taking the Lone Star State back is imperative, because there is no path for the national Republican Party without Texas. But hear me on this: our hope was never in a party, and it was never in a politician. "Put not your trust in princes." Psalm 146:3. Jesus is the foundation of everything I do, followed by family and business, in that order. We do not know what the future holds, but the Lord knows exactly what He is doing, and we trust Him completely. Christ is King. We will never give up. We will never back down. We will never bend the knee to any man or any government, for any reason. Because this is Texas. For liberty, prosperity, and virtue, always. I love you all. God bless you, and God bless Texas. Comptroller Don Huffines