HOUSTON — Attorney General Greg Abbott of Texas, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for governor, on Tuesday defended his decision to campaign with the pro-gun musician and conservative commentator Ted Nugent a month after Mr. Nugent called President Obama a “communist-nurtured subhuman mongrel.”

The campaign events and Mr. Nugent’s long history of inflammatory speech stirred outrage among Democrats in the state, including Mr. Abbott’s main Democratic rival, State Senator Wendy Davis, who called the decision to campaign with Mr. Nugent “an insult to every Texan.”

But Mr. Abbott defended the move, calling Mr. Nugent at the first of two campaign events a “fighter for freedom.” Mr. Nugent, speaking at that event to a crowd of Mr. Abbott’s supporters at a restaurant in the Dallas suburb of Denton, said the attorney general was “my friend” and “my blood brother.”

The two campaign outings, which came at the start of the 10-day early voting period leading up to the March 4 primary election, illustrated the increasing degree to which Texas Republican leaders have either embraced extreme political speech or flirted with those who hold such views. Top local and statewide elected officials have advocated impeaching Mr. Obama and suggested their support for Texas secession.