Texas Gov. Greg Abbott accused his Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa of supporting Sharia law Friday, escalating attacks on the state representative over an endorsement she received from the Council on American Islamic Relations, a group Texas has designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

The accusation came during a Fox News interview where Abbott criticized Hinojosa for accepting the CAIR endorsement in her bid to unseat him. Abbott has made opposition to Islamic religious law a centerpiece of his reelection campaign, vowing in September to ban Sharia law entirely if voters return him to office.

CAIR Endorsement Draws Fire

Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin who won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in March, received the endorsement from CAIR's Texas chapter earlier this month. The organization advocates for Muslim civil rights and religious freedoms, but Texas designated it in 2019 as having connections to foreign terrorist organizations based on federal court findings from earlier Hamas-related prosecutions.

Abbott seized on the endorsement to paint Hinojosa as extreme and out of touch with Texas values. His campaign has used the issue in television ads and stump speeches across the state, arguing that accepting support from CAIR demonstrates poor judgment and dangerous sympathies.

Tight Race Turns Negative

The Sharia law attacks come as recent polling shows Abbott leading Hinojosa by just 3.3 points, a narrow margin that has Republicans concerned about holding the governorship. Two years ago, Abbott won reelection by nearly 11 points, but a coalition of minority voters and suburban women has tightened what was once considered a safe Republican seat.

Hinojosa has rejected the attacks as Islamophobic fear-mongering designed to distract from Abbott's record on immigration enforcement and energy grid failures. Her campaign released a statement calling the accusations false and divisive, noting that she has never advocated for religious law of any kind to supersede the Texas Constitution.

Republican Base Strategy

Abbott's focus on Islamic law reflects a broader Republican strategy to energize conservative voters ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. The governor pledged at the state GOP convention in Dallas that Texas would fully ban Sharia law under his leadership, receiving standing ovations from delegates who view the issue as critical to protecting American legal traditions.

Legal experts note that Sharia law has no prospect of being implemented in the United States, where the Constitution guarantees separation of church and state. Similar bans proposed in other states have been struck down as unconstitutional religious discrimination, but the political potency of the issue remains strong among conservative voters concerned about immigration and cultural change.