One of Gov. Greg Abbott’s Republican primary challengers for next year has blasted his new proposal to have Texas finish the border wall as a “fraud.”

Former State Sen. Don Huffines released a statement this week blasting Abbott for his plan, while also noting that Huffines was the first candidate for Governor to unveil such a plan. While Huffines said Abbott stole his plan, he also said the Governor’s plan is insufficient to address the border security concerns raised by Texans.

“Greg Abbott stole my campaign’s idea to build a wall along the Texas-Mexico border. Unfortunately, Abbott's plan to build a border wall is not sufficient. The governor claims that he will mostly fund a wall through donations from conservatives who support the effort. Does he really think that will work? It is never going to get done. Abbott is expecting hard-working conservatives in Texas to pay their taxes—including our ever-increasing property taxes—and then donate even more of their money to build the wall. Additionally, parts of Abbott’s proposed ‘wall’ will be made of chain-linked fencing. His plan is unacceptable and impractical.
Abbott has had six years to secure our open border and only now is expressing an interest in taking action because he is facing a serious primary challenger—making his new-found stance on border security politically convenient. Our campaign has received tremendous momentum and he sees his political power being threatened. Texan’s are not ignorant. They know if Abbott wanted to secure the border he would have done so a long time ago.”

Abbott announced his proposal for a border wall last week, shortly after Huffines entered the primary and unveiled his own plan to build a border wall. According to the Huffines campaign, while Abbott said his plan would be covered by a $250 million down payment from the state and individual donations, the projected cost for the wall per-mile is around $46 million, meaning that Abbott’s plan would wholly fund only five or six miles of the wall.

The statement from the Huffines campaign comes as the primary race against Abbott is heating up for 2022. Also in the race with Abbott and Huffines is comedian Chad Prather, veteran Kurt Schwab, and attorney Paul Belew.