Here we go again….
This WILL be a nationalised media story….
Republican Governor Greg Abbott poll numbers have taken a hit….
But his numbers still have him as the odds on walk away favourite to keep his job….
And?…
In the past?
Democrats tend to look go going into statewide races in Texas ….
(Democrat O’Rourke does NOT have a good past political scorecard)
But flame out when the vote actually occurs….
Actor Mathew McConaughey has been flirting with a run….
But he isn’t serious….
Democrats forever hope to get a serious toehold in Texas….
But it just doesn’t go that way…..
Beto O’Rourke — who can ill afford another loss — is going to take his chances anyway, announcing on Monday his long-anticipated campaign for Texas governor…
…
The race represents a comeback bid for O’Rourke, who became a Democratic sensation during his failed Senate run against Ted Cruz in 2018 but whose 2020 presidential primary campaign fell flat, with O’Rourke dropping out before the first votes were cast. Still, Democrats in Texas remain enamored of him, and the chair of the state Democratic Party, Gilberto Hinojosa, and other Democrats in Texas had been heavily lobbying O’Rourke to run.
O’Rourke will start the gubernatorial race at a disadvantage. A poll by the University of Texas at Austin and The Texas Tribune recently showed O’Rourke running 9 percentage points behind Abbott. The Republican governor is already sitting on a war chest of $55 million in a state where Donald Trump beat Joe Biden by nearly 6 percentage points last year and where the last Democrat to win the governorship was Ann Richards, more than a quarter century ago.
But Abbott’s job approval rating slumped amid the resurgence of the coronavirus, and O’Rourke’s advisers and other Democrats in Texas believe Abbott, as an incumbent, is a more vulnerable target than Republican Glenn Youngkin was in Virginia’s gubernatorial race this month.
Texas Democrats are banking on controversy surrounding state Republicans’ restrictive voting bill, as well as the state’s near-ban on abortion, which the Supreme Court allowed to go into effect earlier this year, to galvanize Democratic voters in the long-red state. And O’Rourke for months has been hammering Abbott for his handling of the state’s electric grid failure and coronavirus pandemic, including an executive order barring mask and vaccine mandates in the state…
image…Texas Tribune.Org
Per New York Times….
The Republicans have redistricted enough House seats already to assure themselves of a majority after next November.
5 districts……
The Democratic Majority currently
NY lawmakers may give Dem’s one or two to cut the margin back
FiveThirtyEight…
Texas Voters Have Soured On Greg Abbott, But That Doesn’t Mean They’ll Vote For Beto O’Rourke…
…But despite O’Rourke’s close finish in 2018, a Democrat still hasn’t won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, and given that the national environment seems likely to favor Republicans in 2022, O’Rourke might face an even more challenging campaign this time around. Still, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is not as popular as he once was, so perhaps we shouldn’t be too quick to write off O’Rourke….
More…
Beto is NOT gonna win on policies like this in Texas unless the sky falls on Gov. Abbott…
Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke on Sunday said he stands by his controversial 2019 comment that “we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
Asked by co-host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” if he would stand by his vow if elected governor of Texas, O’Rourke said, “I still hold this view.”
“Look, we are a state that has a long, proud tradition of responsible gun ownership. And most of us here in Texas do not want to see our friends, our family members, our neighbors shot up with these weapons of war. So, yes, I still hold this view,” O’Rourke said….
More…
Abbott Holds Clear Lead In Texas
A new Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll finds Gov. Greg Abbott (R) leading Beto O’Rourke (D) in the governor’s race, 45% to 39%.
By nearly 2-to-1, all voters would be more likely to support Matthew McConaughey than O’Rourke as Abbott’s challenger.
But in a hypothetical three-way general election contest, Abbott is the choice of 37%; McConaughey 27%; and O’Rourke 26%. 10% of voters want someone else.