Updated at 11:58 p.m.: with an analysis of how Abbott won.

AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott breezed to a second term Tuesday but didn’t annihilate Lupe Valdez the way he did Wendy Davis four years ago.

In early returns, the incumbent Republican was leading Valdez by enough to call the election, but not nearly as much as the 20-point drubbing he delivered in 2014 against Davis, a former state senator from Fort Worth.

During his election night watch party in Austin, Abbott said Valdez called to congratulate him.

"Now that elections are over, instead of the red team or blue team, it's time for all us to unite under the great banner that is the flag of Texas," he said, echoing an earlier statement sent to supporters.

"Tonight, voters across Texas sent a clear message," Abbott said in the prepared statement. "They voted to build on the success of the past four years and to keep Texas on a path toward greater opportunity and prosperity. We must always remember that what unites as Texans is far greater than our differences."

One of Abbott's goals for his re-election campaign was to make deeper inroads into the Hispanic vote.

At the watch party, a visitor from Missouri who said he plans to move to Texas soon said he regrets he couldn't vote for Abbott.

"He's a very humble guy and his policies make more sense than Lupe's," said Deir Montiel Dominguez, 25. "I believe he appeals to Latino voters because his policies are good for everyone."

A year ago, Valdez was not Democratic leaders' first pick -- or even their second or third -- for their dream of giving the Republican incumbent a scare.

But the former Dallas County sheriff, underfunded and ill-prepared to debate state issues, had the good fortune of running on the same party ticket as the wunderkind of Texas politics, U.S. Senate hopeful Beto O’Rourke.

O’Rourke’s electrifying rallies and fundraising fueled voter turnout, benefiting Valdez and depressing Abbott’s margin of victory.

In August, Dave Carney, Abbott’s top strategist, spoke of how a well-greased voter mobilization machine assembled by the governor’s team over years would attempt to run up the score and help down-ballot Republicans.

O’Rourke — and possibly President Donald Trump’s success at nationalizing the election around issues such as a border wall and a caravan of Central American migrants — combined to drive statewide turnout well above Team Abbott’s original expectations.

That brought to the polls a surge of Democratic-leaning and independent voters, especially women. Many appeared eager to signal displeasure with Trump by voting for Democrats such as Valdez, even if they knew little about any of O’Rourke’s ticket mates.

It was a break for Valdez, who had no money for broadcast TV ads.

All year, she sought with limited success to build name recognition beyond Dallas, where she served as sheriff from 2005 to last December.

"I wish him well during his next four years," Valdez said of Abbott in her concession speech. However, continuing to denounce GOP attitudes toward immigrants and the poor, moments earlier she said, "Together, we have been on a mission ... against the team of hatefulness and division."

Valdez, 71, is the first Hispanic, woman and lesbian to be elected in Texas, perhaps the country. Democratic Party operatives viewed her as a vehicle to help attract voters in those three demographics, particularly Hispanic voters.

Abbott’s prowess at fundraising left few wealthy donors willing to bet on Valdez.

She accused him of “pay to play,” or in effect granting favors and plum appointments to huge contributors. But with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s battle with O’Rourke, the El Paso congressman, commanding most of the attention, Valdez struggled to be heard.

Abbott held the megaphone. Since last year’s legislative session, the incumbent raised nearly $32 million. This year, he spent $46 million and still had $20 million left as of Oct. 27, according to his filings with the Texas Ethics Commission.

That left him plenty with which to place some last-minute bets on fellow Republicans, though he won’t have to disclose the details for many weeks.

Valdez raised $1.8 million through Oct. 27, meaning Abbott with his $66 million stash had nearly 37 times as much money to spend this year as she did.

While Abbott was more visible, Valdez picked her spots. She took part in a bus tour with fellow Democrats, though it was low profile and hardly noticed by voters. Her message was that Abbott and state Republicans are neglecting moderate- and low-income Texans who need affordable health care and quality education to prepare for the jobs of the future.

Abbott, 60, a former state attorney general and Texas Supreme Court justice, has clashed at times with fellow Republicans in the Legislature, especially in the House, where five-term Speaker Joe Straus is retiring.

Abbott's keenly aware that surprisingly strong Democratic gains in the chamber Tuesday may lead to another more centrist speaker in the mold of Straus, said Sherri Greenberg, clinical professor of politics at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.

And that'll require diplomacy, she said.

"The Democrats in the House don't have leadership commitments to anybody," said Greenberg, a former Democratic House member from Travis County. "If you have this kind of gains with Democrats, then Abbott's got to be looking at that."

Abbott could need conservative leadership in the House to achieve some of his priorities, including a proposal to sharply limit local taxing jurisdictions’ ability to reap increased property tax revenue because of increasing valuations.

Abbott also has spoken of a desire to tackle school finance, especially the “Robin Hood” system that dates to a court ruling in the early 1990s. It requires wealthy school districts to transfer some of their property tax revenue to poorer districts.

What began as a shift of wealth from a few dozen districts, though, has morphed into a system diverting revenues from more than 200, including big districts in Austin, Houston and Dallas. That’s partly because state lawmakers since 2009 have paid a lesser share of the state-local schools tab.

The governor doesn’t talk much about the trend of declining state support, at least in relative terms.

Abbott, though, has spoken of how he wants to increase compensation for public school teachers, though it’s not clear he has buy-in from educator groups for a proposed, merit-based system for rewarding master teachers. It’s based largely on a plan his Education Commissioner Mike Morath helped institute in Dallas as a school trustee there.

In 2015, Abbott helped press for cutting tax rates on businesses and professionals paying the business-franchise or “margins tax.” He has boasted that Texas has an enviable climate for business. He’s also seeking to boost state universities to elite status, and has begun recruiting top scholars and researchers.

How Abbott won, according to AP VoteCast, a wide-ranging survey of the American electorate

Winning the right -- big

While Valdez won by more than 4-to-1 among self-identifying liberals, they comprise only 22 percent of the Texas electorate. Among moderates, who are 35 percent of the electorate, she bested Abbott, 49 percent to 45 percent.

But conservatives make up 43 percent of the pie. And among them, it wasn’t a contest: The Republican incumbent won votes from 90 percent to Valdez’s 8 percent.

Income brackets

Abbott won among all levels of income except Texans making less than $25,000 a year. Among that 11 percent of the electorate, Valdez won only narrowly, 47 percent to 45 percent.

High earners, making $100,000 or more, broke for Abbott, 64 percent to 34 percent for Valdez.

Trump stirs passions

For 36 percent of Texas voters, President Donald Trump was not a factor they considered while casting their vote — and Abbott won this group, 65 percent to 29 percent for Valdez.

Thirty-one percent said they voted to express support for Trump. They went for Abbott, 97 percent to 2 percent. Thirty-two percent voted to show opposition to Trump, and Valdez captured them, 83 percent to 14 percent.

Abbott's Hispanic share steady

While Abbott said he wanted to significantly build on inroads he made in 2014 among Hispanics —when exit polls said he won 40 percent of the Hispanic vote — he didn’t move the needle much.

This year, he won 41 percent of the Hispanic vote, to 53 percent for Valdez. The governor captured 73 percent of whites’ votes, compared with 24 percent for the Democrat. Blacks broke for Valdez, 76 percent to 20 percent.

VoteCast provided a snapshot of who voted in Texas and why, based on an innovative survey of 3,711 voters and 827 nonvoters in the state conducted for The Associated Press by NORC at the University of Chicago.

Austin correspondent Brianna Stone contributed to this report.