Greg Abbott reelected Texas governor, defeating Beto O’Rourke

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MCALLEN — Greg Abbott decisively gained a 3rd time period as governor of Texas on Tuesday, defeating Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke after a tumultuous few years marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, a lethal energy grid failure, new restrictions on voting rights and abortion and the Uvalde college taking pictures.

Determination Desk HQ known as the election for Abbott at 9:23 p.m. Central time.

Abbott, 64, a former state lawyer basic and Texas Supreme Court docket justice, confronted his hardest opponent but in O’Rourke, who repeatedly outraised the incumbent and broke a state fundraising report. However Abbott campaigned relentlessly on border safety and capitalized on nationwide headwinds favoring the GOP by tying O’Rourke to President Joe Biden, who’s unpopular nationwide however particularly in Texas.

O’Rourke sought to make the race a referendum on Abbott’s eventful second time period, emphasizing the grid failure and arguing Abbott had change into too excessive on points like weapons and abortion. Each the Uvalde bloodbath and overturning of Roe v. Wade bolstered O’Rourke’s case, as Abbott resisted any new gun-control measures and his near-total abortion ban took impact.

Abbott largely ignored these points as he campaigned extra on the border, the economic system and public security. And he usually reached again to feedback that O’Rourke made throughout and round his unsuccessful 2020 presidential marketing campaign, arguing O’Rourke confirmed he was too liberal for Texas.

O’Rourke formally launched his problem to Abbott in November 2021, however the race had been lengthy anticipated. The governor spent months prior rallying the state’s Republicans in opposition to O’Rourke, portray him as too liberal for Texas after his unsuccessful 2020 presidential run.

As soon as politically unknown statewide, O’Rourke made himself the state’s high Democrat by his near-miss loss to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. His White Home bid that adopted didn’t acquire as a lot traction, nevertheless it led to him adopting positions to maintain tempo with the leftward bend of the first.

The stance that might outline his White Home bid got here after the 2019 Walmart taking pictures in his hometown of El Paso. O’Rourke emerged from the tragedy with a proposal to mandate buybacks for assault weapons, declaring at one debate, “Hell sure, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” Republicans mentioned the remark would doom any political future O’Rourke had in gun-loving Texas.

O’Rourke was additionally a a lot completely different political setting in Texas than he was in 2018. Scarred by persistent GOP assaults, O’Rourke’s favorability ranking was the other way up in polling, and he was going through the primary midterm underneath a brand new Democratic president who was deeply unpopular in Texas.

O’Rourke didn’t surrender his help for the buyback proposal as he started his marketing campaign in opposition to Abbott, however he centered his marketing campaign on much less polarizing points within the preliminary stretch. On the high of the listing: the 2021 energy grid collapse that killed a whole lot of Texans.

O’Rourke went on a statewide street journey in February to mark the one-year anniversary of the grid failure. Abbott had insisted that every little thing that wanted to be accomplished to repair the grid was handed in the course of the 2021 common legislative session. However O’Rourke argued the measures did far too little, proposing that the state hook up with the nationwide grid, amongst different issues.

Additionally in February, Abbott megadonor Kelcy Warren sued O’Rourke for defamation over his criticism of the $1 million donation that Warren gave Abbott after his pipeline firm reaped windfall income from the facility disaster. O’Rourke held a information convention in March to publicize the lawsuit, vowing to not again down, and it stays pending to today. Abbott’s marketing campaign has denied any position within the lawsuit.

O’Rourke simply gained his major in early March, although Abbott confronted a extra aggressive contest. He finally prevailed with two-thirds of the vote, however he spent months shifting to the precise on points like abortion and weapons as he confronted challengers together with former state Sen. Don Huffines and former Texas GOP Chair Allen West.

Because the official Democratic nominee for governor, O’Rourke gave fellow Democrats hope that he had discovered from his 2018 marketing campaign. He was not hesitating to criticize Abbott after pulling punches in opposition to Cruz, and he pledged to be extra of a workforce participant for the occasion.

It was not lengthy till gun management was once more on the middle of O’Rourke’s platform. On Might 24, a gunman opened hearth at Robb Elementary Faculty in Uvalde, killing 19 college students and two lecturers and injuring 17 others.

A day after the rampage, O’Rourke angrily interrupted Abbott’s information convention in Uvalde, telling him he was “doing nothing” to forestall gun violence. O’Rourke was finally escorted out.

Abbott initially praised the legislation enforcement response to the taking pictures, saying it “may have been worse” if officers had not been there. But it surely quickly turned clear that the response was deeply flawed, with officers ready on-site for over an hour earlier than breaching the classroom the place the gunman was holed up. Abbott mentioned he had been misled as O’Rourke continued to put blame for the carnage on the governor.

A Quinnipiac Ballot launched the subsequent month discovered the race was tightening, with Abbott’s lead down to five proportion factors.

With the state nonetheless reeling from the Uvalde bloodbath, one other history-making occasion arrived in June: the U.S. Supreme Court docket choice overturning Roe v. Wade. The ruling energized Democrats in all places however had particularly excessive stakes in Texas, the place Abbott had already signed a “set off legislation” guaranteeing an computerized, near-total abortion ban if the excessive courtroom ever reversed the landmark choice. O’Rourke jumped into motion to indicate how excessive the legislation was, emphasizing its lack of exceptions for rape and incest victims.

After the Quinnipiac survey, O’Rourke received excellent news in mid-July when marketing campaign finance stories have been launched for a interval beginning in February. O’Rourke had outraised Abbott, $27.6 million to $24.9 million, a once-unthinkable feat given Abbott’s fame as a prodigious fundraiser. And O’Rourke’s fundraising set a brand new report: probably the most cash ever raised by a candidate for state workplace in a single reporting interval. Abbott nonetheless ended the interval with almost twice as a lot money readily available, however O’Rourke’s haul made Democrats newly optimistic that he had a shot in opposition to the governor.

It was on the heels of the Uvalde taking pictures and Roe v. Wade ruling that O’Rourke launched his most bold barnstorm but: a 49-day street journey all through Texas.

It was a throwback to O’Rourke’s go-anywhere marketing campaign 4 years earlier. It produced loads of moments of O’Rourke discovering widespread trigger with Republicans in rural Texas, which his marketing campaign aggressively pushed out on social media. And it led to 1 notably memorable city corridor the place a protester laughed as O’Rourke was discussing the Uvalde taking pictures, describing the affect of an AR-15.

“It might be humorous to you, motherfucker, nevertheless it’s not humorous to me,” O’Rourke mentioned.

As O’Rourke ramped up his journey, Abbott stored a laserlike give attention to one subject: the border. He had already dispatched 1000’s of Nationwide Guard troops there, began development of a state-funded border wall and instituted a short business car inspection coverage that clogged ports of entry for days.

However in April, Abbott upped the ante by starting to bus migrants to Democratic-run cities, a program that escalated because the summer season went on. First he despatched the buses to Washington, D.C., then to New York Metropolis and Chicago. Most just lately, he’s been directing buses on to Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington.

This system earned Abbott numerous Fox Information appearances as O’Rourke tried to maintain voter consideration on abortion and weapons.

As summer season started to show to fall, it appeared like O’Rourke was having an affect. Abbott was giving complicated solutions when requested concerning the abortion legislation’s lack of rape and incest exceptions. On the similar time, near-weekly developments have been coming concerning the errors of legislation enforcement in Uvalde, together with from the state police, whose director, Steve McCraw, was an Abbott loyalist.

Abbott’s marketing campaign launched its first TV adverts in mid-August, considerably early for an incumbent. And the spots appeared aimed toward softening his picture after the 2 most rocky years of his governorship.

It took O’Rourke over three weeks to match Abbott on air, however his first advert confirmed the problem that he was betting massive on. The spot featured a pair — a Democratic spouse and a Republican husband — agreeing that the abortion ban was too excessive.

In late September, Abbott and O’Rourke had their first and solely debate, regardless of O’Rourke’s pleas for a number of conferences. It was contentious however largely predictable, as Abbott tried to tie O’Rourke to President Joe Biden and hammered him on the border, whereas O’Rourke sought to place Abbott on protection over abortion and Uvalde.

As early voting neared, a raft of polls gave Abbott a transparent — however not overwhelming — lead over O’Rourke.

On TV, Abbott had began operating damaging adverts in opposition to O’Rourke, together with about feedback he made in 2020 praising racial-justice protesters who had been pushing to “defund the police.” O’Rourke mentioned he didn’t help that as he campaigned in opposition to Abbott.

However on the similar time Abbott began assailing O’Rourke on air, the Democrat was getting large assist from a brand new group known as Coulda Been Worse LLC. The group was set as much as conceal the supply of its funding — generally generally known as “darkish cash” — and shortly pumped hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into the race, airing adverts that painted a dystopian image of Texas underneath Abbott. O’Rourke mentioned he didn’t know something concerning the group and known as on it to voluntarily disclose its donors, nevertheless it by no means did.

O’Rourke’s marketing campaign itself was not missing for cash. He continued to outraise Abbott on the ultimate two main campaign-finance filings earlier than the election. And he erased Abbott’s cash-on-hand benefit, one other achievement that after appeared a tall order.

Each candidates largely eschewed big-name surrogates within the remaining weeks of the race. Abbott skipped a Robstown rally with former President Donald Trump, citing an out-of-state fundraising journey. For probably the most half, O’Rourke didn’t name in any nationwide names till the day earlier than the election, when former President Barack Obama did a robocall for O’Rourke.

In McAllen, about 150 Abbott supporters gathered on the metropolis’s historic Quinta Mazatlán, a sprawling Spanish property engulfed in hovering palm timber and different tropical plants.

Abbott’s followers got here out to rejoice the rising Republican attain into the Rio Grande Valley, a border area which has lengthy been dominated by Democrats. Jesse Cerda, 46, mentioned he wasn’t a lot into politics earlier than, however he supported Abbott for his abortion stance and believed he wanted to make his voice heard with rising inflation.

“It’s an incredible turnout,” Cerda mentioned. “I feel it’s simply superior they have been capable of do one thing in South Texas as a result of it’s been so Democratic for thus lengthy.”

Cheers erupted from the gang when Fox Information declared Abbott a victor over O’Rourke, the primary main outlet to take action at round 8:15 p.m. Chelsea Howell Garcia, the chairwoman of the Republican Nationwide Hispanic Meeting of Texas applauded what she known as Texans opening their eyes.

“We expect a crimson wave like no different,” the 31-year-old mentioned, herself donning a brilliant crimson jumpsuit.

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