Over the past year, Texas has faced many challenges. There have been horrifying school shootings, including the one at Uvalde that killed 19 children and two teachers, abortion rulings, particularly Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which brought back a 1925 law banning all abortions except when the woman’s life is at risk, a surge in migrant death. Additionally, the electric grid is failing. The difficulties that the Texans have faced have fostered an underlying resentment toward the head of state. Consequently, that has swayed the favor against Governor Greg Abbot in the current election.
Abbott is running for reelection. Greg Abbot is a politician, attorney, and former jurist who has served as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a member of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001. Abbott was elected governor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
Running against him is former congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has raised huge amounts of campaign money and received millions in donations. Beto O’Rourke is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas’s 16th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. It was reported that he raised $27.6 million from late February through June, which is the most a candidate for state office in Texas has ever raised in a single reporting period. Based on current polls, it seems that the Democrats may win this election.
Mark P. Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University who helped conduct one recent poll said that, “Dobbs at the margins has hurt Republicans in Texas. Uvalde at the margins has hurt Republicans in Texas. The grid has hurt Republicans in Texas, Biden and inflation have been their saving grace.”
Democrats and Republicans are fighting to win on top concerns including gun control, abortion, and other issues. On March 7, 2018, O’Rourke told Alisyn Camerota of CNN: “We have a great tradition and culture of gun ownership and gun safety for hunting, for sport, for self-defense… I think that can allow Texas to take the lead on a really tough issue, which the country is waiting for leadership and action on.” O’Rourke supports universal background checks for all firearm purchases.
Recently, O’Rourke has taken a passionate stand against guns, saying “It is insane that we allow an 18-year-old to go in and buy an AR-15. What the hell did we think he was gonna do with that?”
Abbott has a different stance. He has opposed gun control legislation. In 2013, Abbott criticized legislation by New York State which strengthened the state’s gun regulation laws by expanding an assault weapons ban and creating a high-capacity magazine ban; Abbott also said he would sue if Congress enacted a new gun-control bill.
In May, after the elementary school massacare in Uvalde, O’Rourke interrupted a news conference held in Uvalde the day after the shooting to directly challenge Abbott over his stance on guns. “This is on you,” O’Rourke said.
New polls are showing that O’Rourke is within 5 percentage points from the current governor.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/us/texas-governor-campaign-abbott-orourke.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Abbott#Guns, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke#Guns (for gun control stances)
Abbott is running for reelection. Greg Abbot is a politician, attorney, and former jurist who has served as the 48th governor of Texas since 2015. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a member of the Texas Supreme Court from 1996 to 2001. Abbott was elected governor in 2014 and re-elected in 2018.
Running against him is former congressman Beto O’Rourke, who has raised huge amounts of campaign money and received millions in donations. Beto O’Rourke is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Texas’s 16th congressional district from 2013 to 2019. He is a member of the Democratic Party and was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020. It was reported that he raised $27.6 million from late February through June, which is the most a candidate for state office in Texas has ever raised in a single reporting period. Based on current polls, it seems that the Democrats may win this election.
Mark P. Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University who helped conduct one recent poll said that, “Dobbs at the margins has hurt Republicans in Texas. Uvalde at the margins has hurt Republicans in Texas. The grid has hurt Republicans in Texas, Biden and inflation have been their saving grace.”
Democrats and Republicans are fighting to win on top concerns including gun control, abortion, and other issues. On March 7, 2018, O’Rourke told Alisyn Camerota of CNN: “We have a great tradition and culture of gun ownership and gun safety for hunting, for sport, for self-defense… I think that can allow Texas to take the lead on a really tough issue, which the country is waiting for leadership and action on.” O’Rourke supports universal background checks for all firearm purchases.
Recently, O’Rourke has taken a passionate stand against guns, saying “It is insane that we allow an 18-year-old to go in and buy an AR-15. What the hell did we think he was gonna do with that?”
Abbott has a different stance. He has opposed gun control legislation. In 2013, Abbott criticized legislation by New York State which strengthened the state’s gun regulation laws by expanding an assault weapons ban and creating a high-capacity magazine ban; Abbott also said he would sue if Congress enacted a new gun-control bill.
In May, after the elementary school massacare in Uvalde, O’Rourke interrupted a news conference held in Uvalde the day after the shooting to directly challenge Abbott over his stance on guns. “This is on you,” O’Rourke said.
New polls are showing that O’Rourke is within 5 percentage points from the current governor.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/us/texas-governor-campaign-abbott-orourke.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Abbott#Guns, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beto_O%27Rourke#Guns (for gun control stances)