Greg Abbott defeats Beto O'Rourke in the Texas governor's election

Greg Abbott easily won a third term as governor of Texas on Tuesday, defeating Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke following a turbulent few years defined by the COVID-19 outbreak, a catastrophic power system failure, increased voting rights and abortion restrictions, and the Uvalde school tragedy.

At 9:23 p.m. Central time, Decision Desk HQ declared Abbott the winner.

Abbott, 64, a former state attorney general and Texas Supreme Court justice, faced his most difficult opponent yet in O'Rourke, who outraised the incumbent twice and shattered a state fundraising record. Abbott, on the other hand, campaigned hard on border security and profited on national headwinds favouring the GOP by connecting O'Rourke to President Joe Biden, who is unpopular nationwide but particularly in Texas.

Around 150 Abbott fans met in McAllen at the historic Quinta Mazatlán, a vast Spanish house surrounded by soaring palm palms and other exotic plant life. Abbott credited the Rio Grande Valley for his victory, citing his efforts on border security over the previous two years.

"We began this campaign in South Texas, we celebrated my primary win in South Texas, and now we return to South Texas to celebrate my continuation as your governor for the next four years," he stated. In a Spanish estate flanked by his wife and daughter, the governor praised the other Republicans who won or were expected to win in Texas Tuesday night and reiterated his priorities as the state's leader. He advocated for decreased crime and property taxes, the defence of the oil and gas sector, and the continuation of his multibillion-dollar border-security operation. He also urged Congress to take the lead on border security initiatives.

"Texans gave a very clear message tonight," he added. "They want Texas to remain the beacon of opportunity that it has been for the previous eight years."

O'Rourke attempted to turn the contest into a referendum on Abbott's eventful second term, emphasising the grid failure and claiming Abbott had become too extremist on topics like as firearms and abortion. Both the Uvalde tragedy and the Roe v. Wade decision strengthened O'Rourke's argument, as Abbott fought any additional gun-control measures and his near-total abortion ban went into force.

At 9:20 p.m., O'Rourke entered the stage at his Election Night reception in El Paso and thanked friends and family. "Everything we could possible provide to this campaign, we gave to this," he added, listing Abbott's advantages from the start. O'Rourke assured fans that he would remain active. "I don't know what my or your future will be, but I'm in this battle for life," he concluded, drawing the most applause of the address.

Abbott mainly overlooked these concerns in favour of focusing on the border, the economy, and public safety. And he frequently referred back to remarks made by O'Rourke during and after his failed 2020 presidential campaign, suggesting that O'Rourke shown he was too liberal for Texas.

O'Rourke formally announced his challenge to Abbott in November 2021, but the race has been anticipated for quite some time. After his failed 2020 presidential bid, the governor spent months mobilising the state's Republicans against O'Rourke, portraying him as too liberal for Texas.

O'Rourke, who was previously politically unknown statewide, became the state's top Democrat after narrowly losing to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018. His subsequent White House run did not find traction, but it did lead to his adopting stances to stay up with the primary's leftward shift.

After the 2019 Walmart shooting in his hometown of El Paso, he took the stance that would characterise his White House quest. O'Rourke emerged from the tragedy with a plan to require assault weapon buybacks, proclaiming during one debate, "Hell yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47." Republicans warned the remark would damage O'Rourke's political prospects in gun-loving Texas.

O'Rourke also faced a very different political environment in Texas than he did in 2018. O'Rourke's favorability rating was negative in polls, and he was facing the first midterm election under a new Democratic president who was very unpopular in Texas.

O'Rourke did not abandon his support for the buyback programme as he launched his campaign against Abbott, but he focused on less divisive subjects in the early going. The 2021 power grid collapse, which killed hundreds of Texans, is at the top of the list.

In February, O'Rourke took a statewide road tour to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the grid breakdown. Abbott had requested that all necessary grid-repair legislation be approved during the normal parliamentary session in 2021. However, O'Rourke contended that the steps were insufficient, asking, among other things, that the state link to the national grid.

In February, Abbott megadonor Kelcy Warren sued O'Rourke for defamation for his criticism of Warren's $1 million gift to Abbott after his pipeline firm profited handsomely from the power outage. O'Rourke held a press conference in March to announce the case, promising not to back down, and it is still ongoing today. The Abbott campaign has denied any involvement in the complaint.

O'Rourke comfortably won his primary in early March, but Abbott had a more difficult challenge. He won with two-thirds of the vote, but he spent months turning to the right on topics such as abortion and weapons as he faced candidates such as former state Sen. Don Huffines and former Texas GOP Chair Allen West.

O'Rourke, as the official Democratic contender for governor, offered other Democrats faith that he had learned from his 2018 campaign. He was unafraid to criticise Abbott for pulling punches against Cruz, and he promised to be a better team player for the party.

It wasn't long before gun control was back at the top of O'Rourke's agenda. On May 24, a shooter opened fire at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School, killing 19 kids and two teachers and wounded 17.

A day after the shooting, O'Rourke stormed into Abbott's press conference in Uvalde, accusing him of "doing nothing" to curb gun violence. O'Rourke was eventually taken out.

Abbott originally applauded the actions of law police to the incident, saying it "might have been worse" if authorities had not been present. However, it quickly became evident that the reaction was severely wrong, with cops remaining on the scene for more than an hour before entering the classroom where the shooter was holed up. As O'Rourke continued to blame the governor for the violence, Abbott said he had been deceived.

The following month, a Quinnipiac Poll saw the race narrowing, with Abbott's lead down to 5 percentage points.

While the state was still grieving from the Uvalde tragedy, another historic event occurred in June: the United States Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The judgement energised Democrats around the country, but it was especially significant in Texas, where Abbott had previously passed a "trigger legislation" assuring an immediate, near-total abortion ban if the Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision. O'Rourke acted quickly to demonstrate how harsh the rule was, emphasising the lack of exceptions for rape and incest victims.

Following the Quinnipiac poll, O'Rourke had excellent news in mid-July when campaign funding records for the period beginning in February were disclosed. O'Rourke has raised $27.6 million more than Abbott, a previously inconceivable achievement given Abbott's reputation as a prolific fundraiser. And O'Rourke's fundraising established a new record: the most money ever raised by a state office candidate in a single reporting period. Abbott still had nearly twice as much cash on hand at the conclusion of the month, but O'Rourke's haul gave Democrats renewed hope that he might defeat the governor.

Following the Uvalde massacre and the Roe v. Wade decision, O'Rourke embarked on his most ambitious barnstorm yet: a 49-day road journey throughout Texas.

It was reminiscent of O'Rourke's go-anywhere campaign four years prior. It resulted in several instances of O'Rourke finding common ground with Republicans in rural Texas, which his team actively promoted on social media. And it led to one especially memorable town hall, where a protester chuckled as O'Rourke described the impact of an AR-15 while discussing the Uvalde killing.

"It may be humorous to you, motherfucker," O'Rourke responded, "but it's not funny to me."

As O'Rourke increased his tour, Abbott remained laser-focused on one issue: the border. He'd already sent hundreds of National Guard troops there, begun work on a state-funded border wall, and implemented a short commercial vehicle check procedure that jammed ports of entry for days.

But, in April, Abbott raised the ante by starting to transport migrants to Democratic-run communities, a scheme that grew in scope over the summer. He dispatched the buses first to Washington, D.C., then to New York City and Chicago. He has lately directed buses to Vice President Kamala Harris' apartment in Washington.

Abbott appeared on Fox News many times while O'Rourke sought to keep voters focused on abortion and firearms.

As summer gave way to fall, it appeared that O'Rourke was having an effect. When challenged about the abortion law's lack of rape and incest provisions, Abbott gave contradictory replies. At the same time, near-weekly updates on law enforcement mistakes in Uvalde were pouring in, including from the state police, whose director, Steve McCraw, was an Abbott supporter.

Abbott's campaign aired its first television commercials in mid-August, which is unusually early for an incumbent. And the ads looked to be focused at softening his image following the two most difficult years of his governorship.

It took O'Rourke three weeks to match Abbott on the air, but his initial commercial highlighted the topic on which he was playing heavily. The commercial depicted a couple, a Democratic wife and a Republican husband, who agreed that the abortion restriction was too harsh.

Despite O'Rourke's requests for several meetings, Abbott and O'Rourke held their first and only debate in late September. It was acrimonious but generally expected, with Abbott attempting to tie O'Rourke to President Joe Biden and hammer him on the border, and O'Rourke attempting to put Abbott on the defensive over abortion and Uvalde.

As early voting began, a slew of surveys showed Abbott with a sizable but not overwhelming advantage over O'Rourke.

Abbott had begun running nasty commercials against O'Rourke on television, citing statements he made in 2020 applauding racial-justice demonstrators who were demanding to "defund the police." As he campaigned against Abbott, O'Rourke stated that he did not support this.

But, at the same time Abbott was attacking O'Rourke on the radio, the Democrat was getting a lot of aid from a new organisation called Coulda Been Worse LLC. The organisation was formed to obscure the source of its funding—a practise known as "dark money"—and immediately poured millions of dollars into the campaign, airing advertisements that projected a gloomy picture of Texas under Abbott. O'Rourke stated that he knew nothing about the organisation and urged it to reveal its funders freely, but it never did.

O'Rourke's campaign was not short on funds. On the final two significant campaign finance disclosures before the election, he continued to outraise Abbott. And he eliminated Abbott's cash-on-hand advantage, another feat that looked impossible at the time.

In the last weeks of the campaign, both candidates generally avoided big-name surrogates. Abbott cancelled a rally with former President Donald Trump in Robstown, citing an out-of-state fundraising trip. O'Rourke did not solicit national names until the day before the election, when former President Barack Obama made a robocall supporting him.

Abbott supporters gathered to celebrate the Republican Party's expanding presence in the Rio Grande Valley, a border region traditionally dominated by Democrats.

Jesse Cerda, 46, said he wasn't much into politics previously, but he admired Abbott's abortion stance and felt compelled to speak out in light of growing prices.

"It's a fantastic attendance," remarked Cerda. "I think it's amazing that they were able to do something in South Texas since it's always been so Democratic."

At roughly 8:15 p.m., Fox News proclaimed Abbott the winner over O'Rourke, becoming the first major media organisation to do so. Chelsea Howell Garcia, chairperson of Texas' Republican National Hispanic Assembly, praised "Texans opening their eyes."