Texas Elections: Greg Abbott leads Beto O’Rourke in polls as race for Texas governor barrels toward finish line

AUSTIN, Texas — The biggest race in Texas will soon be decided.

Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8, and voters will cast their ballots to decide who will be victorious in the race for Texas governor: Republican incumbent Greg Abbott or Democrat Beto O’Rourke.

The race has been a heated one. Abbott’s campaign has focused on conservative wins for border security and the economy, while O’Rourke’s campaign has targeted Abbott’s response to the Uvalde school shooting and the February 2021 power grid failure, as well as the state’s abortion law.

Polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and results are expected to begin rolling in shortly after. We will be closely monitoring the results and this story will be updated when the race is called.

Incumbent Greg Abbott was elected as the 48th governor of Texas in 2014 and assumed office in 2015. Prior to that, he was the 50th and longest-serving Texas Attorney General, a position he held from 2002 until 2015. He also previously served as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court for several years and as a state district judge in Harris County.

Abbott is a native Texan who was born in Wichita Falls and raised in Duncanville. After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, he earned a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School.

According to his campaign website, Abbott’s primary issues include growing the Texas economy, defending the Second Amendment, protecting religious freedom, supporting law enforcement and securing the Texas-Mexico border, among other things.

Beto O’Rourke, who was born and raised in El Paso, served as a member of the El Paso City Council for several years and as a U.S. Representative for the El Paso area from 2013 until 2019. In 2018, O’Rourke ran for U.S. Senate against Republican Ted Cruz and lost. In March 2019, O’Rourke announced his candidacy in the 2020 presidential election but ended his campaign eight months later.

O’Rourke also founded and currently leads Powered by People, an organization that “works to expand democracy and produce Democratic victories through voter registration and direct voter engagement,” according to his campaign website.

His website also states that his primary issues include power grid stability, affordable health care, high-quality jobs, reproductive health and rural investment, among other things.

As Abbott seeks to convince voters to elect him for a third term, he has touted a long list of major conservative accomplishments during his tenure, from a complete ban on abortion to allowing Texans to carry firearms without a permit. However, the aftermath of the Uvalde school shooting has continued to drag down Abbott’s approval ratings, as evidenced in the “Texas Decides” poll conducted by TEGNA stations in early October.

As for O’Rourke, who seeks to convince voters to make him the state’s first Democratic governor in 27 years, he has scored some fundraising wins over Abbott, while still trailing him in the polls. The Texas Tribune reported last week that O’Rourke outraised Abbott for a third consecutive time in October – but a Texas Politics Project poll saw Abbott widen his lead over O’Rourke just days ahead of the start of early voting.

The winner of the race for Texas governor will begin their term in January.

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