By: Andrea Yan
The Texas governor election between Democrat Beto O’Rourke and incumbent Republican Greg Abbott has become increasingly close due to the Ulvade shooting, abortion ban, and the failing electrical grid.
Even though the events in Texas have left voters leaning towards Democrats, the rising inflation and low approval rating of President Biden have favored Republicans. As Mark Jones, professor of political science at Rice University says, “Ulvade at the margins has hurt Republicans in Texas. The grid has hurt Republicans in Texas. Biden and inflation have been their saving grace.”
According to recent polls, there is only a single-digit deficit between Mr. O’Rourke and Mr. Abbott, in a state that has historically been extremely conservative. Similarly, Mr. O’Rourke is now raising more money in donations by almost three million according to the last filing. Chris Evans, spokesman for O’Rourke’s campaign says “If you just look from April to July, the race changed 5 points” in favor of the Democrat.
As Mr. Abbott’s lead is dwindling, his campaign said in a conference call with reporters they are “straight on track, where [they] want to be.” Even with the recent increase in donations for his Democrat opponent, Mr. Abbott still has almost twice as much campaign money and his team plans to use it in the future to advertise to promote voter turn-out once voting starts in November.
Mr. Abbott’s campaign plan is to use his opponent’s extreme leftist positions on gun control, police reform, and the oil industry he voiced during his unsuccessful presidential campaign. One example of Mr. O’Rourke’s forceful actions that support this is during a news conference following the Uvalde shooting. He interrupted the conference about the matter and blamed Mr. Abbott for the shooting and deaths of 19.
Texas politics are changing. Democrats hope, after three decades, they will finally hold office. Republicans hope they maintain control of the position. Come November, we will be able to understand how bad of an impact Ulvade, abortion ban, and the electrical grid failure was on Abbott’s campaign and how bad of an impact inflation and low approval of the President had on O’Rourke’s campaign.
Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/us/texas-governor-campaign-abbott-orourke.html