Abbott launched its campaign with a focus on border security and police support, said in a statement video posted to his Twitter account: “I want you to know I’m running to protect and secure our border. I’m running to support our police officers in the state of Texas. And I’m running to make sure. that Texas is still a job generator.”
The race for governor of Texas began gaining national attention earlier this month when Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman who unsuccessfully ran for the US Senate in 2018 and ran for office. Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, launch his campaign, which many Democrats in the state have identified as the party’s only chance to reject Abbott for a third term.
In the two-minute video announcing his campaign, O’Rourke uses February’s Texas power grid failure during a severe winter storm to criticize Abbott’s leadership, saying those without electricity and water “abandoned by those elected to serve and look out for them.”
Democrats in Texas said they see Abbott as a political wound from the episode along with a host of other controversies stemming from the government’s efforts to limit abortion and ban vaccinations. ONE September poll from Quinnipiac University found that 51% of registered voters in the state said Abbott did not deserve re-election.
Still, turning Texas green in a statewide race remains a lofty task for Democrats, especially with President Joe Biden’s lower approval rate energizing the party. Republicans who hoped to run for his presidency to electoral gains in Washington and states across the country.
Abbott used O’Rourke’s comments from the presidential race on issues like gun control, the Green New Deal, healthcare reform, immigration and the Black Lives Matter movement – generally out of context – in a series of commercials he posted on YouTube called “Wrong Way O’Rourke”.
One wild card in the race could be actor Matthew McConaughey, who has signaled interest in launching his own campaign. “I’m measuring it,” he said of running for office on a podcast in September. “Look, it’s going to be to some extent. … I’m just–I’m more of a popular poet and philosopher than a definitive politician.”
He continued, “So I go, well, that’s the reason not to, but then I go, no, that’s exactly why you should, because politics needs redefining, but I’m measuring, you know, what’s my category? embassies?”
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