Abbott campaign ad targets O’Rourke on crime
Gov. Greg Abbott is out with new attack ads that warn that electing Beto O’Rourke will lead to more crime in the streets.
In a new 30-second ad released Tuesday morning, Abbott has the mother of a murdered teenager warning voters against supporting O’Rourke because he backs bail reforms that she says are similar to what Harris County had put into place that led to her son’s killer being released on bond.
“If Beto O’Rourke is elected governor, there will be more violence and more victims,” says Stacy Langhum.
Langhum’s son Diego was killed in April 2021. The alleged killer was released on bond and accused of later violating the conditions of his release and shooting another person. His bail was revoked and he was returned to jail.
But O’Rourke does not support allowing violent offenders out on bail, his campaign says. His past support for cash bail reforms is only for low-level, non-violent crimes.
“He has been clear that if someone has a violent record and poses a danger to our communities, then there should be no amount of money that allows this person to be released from jail,” said Chris Evans, O’Rourke’s campaign communications director.
Abbott, a lawyer and former judge, has made a get-tough-on-crime approach a key part of his campaign even as some data shows crime has been rising during his tenure as governor. Houston, for instance, has seen a sharp rise in homicides in each of the last two years, starting with a 43% increase from 2019 to 2020 — similar to the increase measured across all of Harris County, including Houston and the other incorporated cities.
Counts of assault also rose about 30% across Harris County in 2020, while property crimes saw a slight decline, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety’s “index crimes report,” which collects data from local law enforcement.
While violent crime has spiked in Houston and Harris County, the same can be said of nearly every large city and county in the nation — many of which have far higher rates of murder and other violent crime. Criminologists also point to many possible factors underpinning the crime surge, making it impossible to sum up the situation with a single statistic or policy decision.