The governor of Texas is the head of the executive branch of Texas's government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor has the power to either approve or veto bills passed by the Texas Legislature, and to convene the legislature. The governor may grant pardons in cases other than impeachment (but only when recommended by the Board of Pardons and Paroles) or in the case of treason, with permission by the legislature.

Compared to the governors of other U.S. states, the governorship of Texas has been cited by Slate magazine and liberal commentator Molly Ivins as a fairly weak office. In some respects it is the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, who presides over the state Senate, who is a more powerful political figure able to exercise greater personal prerogatives. Current Governor Rick Perry held the Lt. Governorship from 1999–2000, under George W. Bush.

The state's first constitution in 1845 established the office of governor, to serve for two years, but no more than four years out of every six (essentially a limit of no more than two consecutive terms). The 1861 secessionist constitution set the term start date at the first Monday in the November following the election. The 1866 constitution, adopted just after the American Civil War, increased terms to four years, but no more than eight years out of every twelve, and moved the start date to the first Thursday after the organization of the legislature, or "as soon thereafter as practicable." The Reconstruction constitution of 1869 removed the limit on terms, and to this day, Texas is one of 14 states with no gubernatorial term limit. The present constitution of 1876 shortened terms back to two years, but a 1972 amendment increased it back to four years.

Texas (ⁱ/ˈtɛksəs/) (Alibamu: Teksi ) is the second most populous and the second most extensive of the 50 United States, and the most extensive state of the 48 contiguous United States. The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in East Texas. Located in the South Central United States, Texas shares an international border with the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the south, and borders the US states of New Mexico to the west, Oklahoma to the north, Arkansas to the northeast, and Louisiana to the east. Texas has an area of 268,820 square miles (696,200 km²), and a growing population of 25.7 million residents.

During the Spanish colonial rule, the area was officially known as the Nuevo Reino de Filipinas: La Provincia de Texas. Antonio Margil de Jesús was known to be the first person to use the name in a letter to the Viceroy of Mexico in July 20, 1716. The name was not popularly used in daily speech but often appeared in legal documents until the end of the 1800s.

Gregory Wayne "Greg" Abbott(born November 13, 1957) is the Texas Attorney General, and is the second Republican since Reconstruction to serve in that role. Abbott was sworn in on December 2, 2002, following John Cornyn's election to the U.S. Senate. Prior to assuming the office of attorney general, Abbott was a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, a position to which he was initially appointed in 1995 by then-Governor George W. Bush. He is noted outside the state of Texas for successfully defending the right of the state of Texas to display the Ten Commandments in front of the state Capitol in Austin in a 2005 United States Supreme Court case known as Van Orden v. Perry.

Abbott was born in Wichita Falls and was raised in Duncanville (Dallas County). He and his wife, Cecilia P. Abbott, a former school teacher and principal, were married in 1982. They have a daughter named Audrey (born 1997).

After his graduation from the University of Texas in Austin, with a B.B.A. in finance, he received his law degree from the Vanderbilt University Law School in Nashville, Tennessee.

James Richard "Rick" Perry (born March 4, 1950) is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. Perry, a Republican, was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full gubernatorial terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010. With a tenure in office to date of &1000000000000001100000011 years, &10000000000000188000000188 days, Perry is the longest continuously serving current U.S. governor, and the second longest serving current U.S. governor—after Terry Branstad of Iowa. Perry served as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2008 (succeeding Sonny Perdue of Georgia) and again in 2011. Perry is the longest serving governor in Texas state history. As a result, he is the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every eligible state office, board, or commission position (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as six of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court).

Daniel Patrick Pugh (born May 15, 1956), professionally known as Dan Patrick, is an American Sports Emmy-winning sportscaster, radio personality, and actor from Mason, Ohio. He currently hosts The Dan Patrick Show which is broadcast on radio on Premiere Radio Networks, and on television on The Audience Network for DIRECTV subscribers, co-hosts NBC's Football Night in America, and serves as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He previously worked at ESPN for 18 years, where he often anchored the weeknight and Sunday 11 PM edition of SportsCenter.

Patrick attended the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio. His brother, Bill Pugh, is a longtime sports radio executive, and is currently the head of programming at Clear Channel San Diego. Patrick was a basketball player in high school at William Mason High School, becoming an Ohio all-state selection his senior year. He attended Eastern Kentucky University on a basketball scholarship for two years before transferring to the University of Dayton, where he majored in broadcast journalism. Patrick is also an alumnus of the Eta Hexaton Chapter of the Phi Sigma Kappa Fraternity at Dayton.