Beto O’Rourke Is Running For Governor of Texas
Campaign season is officially here in Texas. Beto O'Rourke on Monday morning announced that he will be running for Governor against current Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who is widely expected to win the Republican Primary.
The former United States Congressman has now launched campaigns for office in 2018, 2020, and now for 2022. In 2018, O'Rourke became the big name Democrat in Texas during his campaign for U.S. Senate against Senator Ted Cruz. O'Rourke lost to Cruz by about 2% in that race. O'Rourke then went on a road trip to determine his next political move which was to run for President. In that campaign O'Rourke moved to the left on many issues, including his vow to take people's AR-15's away from them.
O'Rourke has long been rumored to run for Governor of Texas but until Monday morning never confirmed anything. Last week, O'Rourke's PAC announced that an announcement would be happening soon.
In a video posted to Twitter on Monday, O'Rourke went after Abbott on several issues including the grid, his response to the pandemic, and more.
O'Rourke also did an exclusive interview with Texas Monthly where he said Abbott's priorities have been on issues that most Texans don't agree with.
It’s true. Yeah. I want to serve this state and try to bring the people of Texas together to do some of the really big work that is before us and get past this smallness and divisiveness that Greg Abbott has brought to Texas. You see it in the things he wants us to focus on right now, like which girls can play which sports in middle school, or what history teachers in public schools can teach. [In October, Abbott signed a law restricting transgender K-12 students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity. In June he signed a slate of laws dictating how educators can discuss issues relating to race.] You see it in the absolute failure of our electric grid in February.
Of course Abbott still has a primary race to win, but he is heavily favored to do so and has already been running ads against O'Rourke.
Candidates have until December 13 to file for statewide office.