Incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Beto O’Rourke met at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) in Edinburg on Friday for their first and only debate, Austin-based media outlets reported.
Abbott and O’Rourke spent an hour verbally sparring over the hottest issues of the 2022 election cycle in Texas: Immigration, the tragic events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde and abortion, per a Texas Tribune report that was ran by Austin ABC affiliate KVUE.
Abbott seeks to secure a third term as Texas’ chief executive while O’Rourke hopes to become the first Democratic governor of the state since the late Ann Richards in the early 1990s.
“Voters want to know who they’re voting for and what they’re voting for,” Travis County Democratic Party Chair Katie Naranjo told Austin CBS affiliate KEYE.
The Texas Tribune reported that the night began with immigration, a consistently prioritized subject among the state’s registered voters.
Regarding border security, Abbott implied that the state shouldn’t have to spend a dime on what he claims is a job of the federal government, as well as attacking O’Rourke’s purported call for lesser immigration enforcement.
“What we’re doing is making sure that we are keeping our community safe, and this is completely different than the way things would be under Beto because he said months ago, ‘There is no problem on the border,’” the GOP nominee said, according to the report.
O’Rourke responded that Abbott was attempting to deflect blame as he would on other matters, claiming the governor’s efforts haven’t had the impact of preventing border crossings.
“He’s going to blame people like President [Joe] Biden … He’s going to distract from his failures,” the El Paso Democrat said, The Texas Tribune reported.
The candidates were then given an opportunity to talk about guns, especially the Uvalde mass shooting that claimed the lives of 21 people, including 19 students.
"We want to end school shootings but we cannot do that by making false promises,” Abbott said, KEYE reported. “It's a false promise to suggest that we can pass a law that will be upheld by the constitution to raise the age."
Abbott added that mental health is a root cause of school shootings, and the state “is already addressing that.”
According to KEYE, O’Rourke argued that nothing has been done since Uvalde, saying he would raise the age if elected to the state’s top office.
“All we need is action and the only person standing in our way is the governor of the state of Texas," O’Rourke, who openly confronted his opponent during a press conference just days after the Robb shooting, said, the station reported.
The subject of abortion in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was touched on during the debate.
KEYE reported that Abbott, who signed the Texas Heartbeat Act that bars abortions after the detection of embryonic or fetal cardiac activity into law last year, said the state “is going to pay for” emergency contraception for victims of rape and incest and assure victims get the proper medical attention.
In response, the station reported, O’Rourke decried what he claimed is an attack on women and promised to let them make decisions on what’s best for their health.
Less than 40 days remain until Election Day on Nov. 8.
According to The Hill, a Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation poll released on Sunday, Sept. 25, has Abbott ahead of O’Rourke by seven points.