Abbott, O’Rourke score hits
In lone debate, rivals pound home attacks
After an hour of debating, neither Gov. Greg Abbott nor Beto O'Rourke landed any knockout punch that is likely to shake up the race much.
But that doesn't mean both candidates weren't able to score major points in trying to define the other during their one and only face-to-face battle. Throughout Friday night's debate in Edinburg, Abbott labeled O'Rourke a flip-flopper while O'Rourke continually emphasized that Abbott has had eight
years to fix problems such as shoring up the state’s shaky power grid and school violence and hasn’t been able to get it done.
The debate comes with less than 40 days until Election Day on Nov. 8 and just over three weeks until inperson early voting begins.
Style-wise, both showed different sides than in other debates over the years. Abbott was more amped up than in past debates against Democratic challengers, weaving more punches and counterpunches.
O’Rourke, who has struggled in past debates, appeared far more disciplined in staying on his message and trying to make his overall case against Abbott throughout the night — something he couldn’t quite manage in 2018 when he ran for the U.S. Senate.
While Abbott did get one-quarter of the debate dedicated to the border, he hardly got to say a word about the oil and gas industry — an area he’s tried to attack O’Rourke on since the minute the El Paso Democrat jumped in the race.
On the campaign trail, Abbott has tried to make the case to the state’s oil and gas workers that O’Rourke would try to kill their jobs, a claim O’Rourke has continually labeled as false but has still found himself on defense in much of the state.
Texas has more than 400,000 jobs directly tied to the oil and gas industry, and they’re still among the bestpaying work available, especially for those without a higher education.
O’Rourke has tried to assure oil workers that he’s not going to hurt their industry, and instead wants to create more renewable energy jobs in Texas to complement oil and gas.
But the debate started exactly as Abbott would have wanted.
Beginning with border
For the first 15 minutes of the hourlong debate, the moderators had the candidates going back and forth over border security, Abbott’s deployment of soldiers on the border and his strategy to ship migrants on buses to other cities.
It all gave Abbott a chance to lean into an issue that has continually been rated No. 1 by voters in polling in Texas. And maybe just as importantly, it allowed him to tee off on President Joe Biden, whose approval ratings are below 40 percent in Texas.
“We’ve been working to respond to the disaster caused by the Biden administration,” Abbott said in his first words of the debate.
But O’Rourke was ready, saying the border has only gotten worse as Abbott has dithered with an array of “stunts” such as busing migrants to Democratic-controlled cities and slowing trade with Mexico by ordering more vehicle inspections in a gambit that cost Texas billions in lost trade.
“We are eight years into his time as governor, and this is what we have on our border,” O’Rourke said, adding that after $4 billion of spending on Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, more migrants are crossing than before.
Abbott was having none of that, quickly countering, “This is all because of Joe Biden’s failure to do the president’s job to secure the border.”
O’Rourke denied he was for open borders after Abbott tried to make that charge. Instead O’Rourke repeated his solution is to create a “safe legal orderly path for anyone who wants to come here to work, join family or seek asylum.”
O’Rourke has said that would take pressure off the Border Patrol by having fewer people trying to cross between points of entry.
Flip-flop accusations
Continuing a weekslong line of attack, Abbott went all-in trying to show viewers that O’Rourke gives different answers to important questions depending on his audience.
“Beto continues to flipflop on issue after issue after issue,” Abbott said.
Abbott pointed to O’Rourke saying at times he wants to pull Texas National Guard troops from the border, but at other times saying he’s for keeping some soldiers on the border. He also brought up O’Rourke’s comments supporting the Green New Deal in the past, and agreeing with Minneapolis defunding their police after the killing of George Floyd.
O’Rourke has repeatedly said Abbott is distorting his words on both. While he’s praised elements of the Green New Deal, he said it was never a policy he promoted for Texas. And as for defunding the police, O’Rourke has said he never has called for defunding the police in Texas and pointed to his record on the El Paso City Council where he voted to raise spending for police and firefighters.
8 years in office
Throughout the debate, O’Rourke tossed reminders to the viewers that Abbott has had eight years to address a myriad of problems in the state, but has not.
It goes beyond the border. After Abbott said he wanted to raise teacher pay, O’Rourke said he’s had eight years and the state’s teachers are still underpaid by $7,500 a year. Later, Abbott said he wanted to lower property taxes. Again, O’Rourke said Abbott’s had two terms to address it, but tax bills continue to climb.
And O’Rourke really hammered that point home in his closing statement.
“Look, I don’t think that Greg Abbott wakes up wanting to see children shot in their schools or for the grid to fail, but it’s clear he is incapable or unwilling to make the changes necessary to prioritize the lives of our fellow Texans,” O’Rourke said.
Abbott presented the case that the state has been improving in many areas during his watch.
“Texas ranks No. 1 for the most new jobs created since you re-elected me,” Abbott said. “We’re No. 1 for Blue Ribbon schools, No. 1 for Tier One research universities and No. 1 in so many different categories. I’m running for re-election to keep Texas No. 1.”
Uvalde’s grief
Having helped families from Uvalde travel to the debate site, this was an issue O’Rourke sought to hone to show why Abbott should be defeated.
O’Rourke said Abbott is standing in the way of raising the age to purchase weapons like the one used to kill the 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde on May 24. He pointed to Florida raising the age, while Abbott refuses to act.
“After all these mass shootings, this governor has done nothing except make it easier for people who should not have a firearm to carry them publicly,” O’Rourke said.
Abbott stood by his assertion that raising the age to buy some weapons will eventually be ruled unconstitutional and called it a “false promise” to families of Uvalde victims.
But Abbott’s claim has been disputed by legal experts given that other states have enacted such age restrictions and the U.S. Supreme Court has not directly addressed the issue.
O’Rourke also faulted Abbott for the failure of 91 Texas Department of Public Safety officers who were in Uvalde but didn’t storm the classroom for more than 77 minutes. Those officers are under Abbott’s command and need to be held accountable for what happened that day he said.
Abbott pushed back saying DPS officers are being held accountable and their actions are being investigated. He said two officers have been suspended. “There does need to be accountability,” Abbott said.
That brought a sharp response from O’Rourke: “The buck stops on your desk.”