With Beto O’Rourke officially announcing his run to be governor of Texas under the Democratic Party banner, Democrats are looking to pounce on several issues in their efforts to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX).
When he announced his run for governor, O’Rourke listed several issues to separate himself from Abbott.
According to Brad Johnson of The Texan, “The first and most pronounced [issue] was on the state’s power grid.”
Since Texas’ controversial power outrage in February, Democrats have rallied around the slogan “Fix the damn grid.”
Democrats have leaned on this message to highlight Republicans’ failures to bolster the state’s infrastructure while prioritizing the passage of “constitutional carry,” election reform, and the Heartbeat Act bills.
Republicans and Democrats recently passed several bills to prevent a future energy failure.
However, Democrat leaders argue that these reforms do not go far enough in fixing the grid.
During his campaign announcement interview, Beto O’Rourke, stated, “[I]n the legislative session that followed [the blackouts], [Abbott] did nothing meaningful to prepare us for the next winter storm or the next test of our electricity grid.”
Democrats are also targeting significant legislative items passed earlier in the 2021 legislative session, such as constitutional carry, election reform, and the Heartbeat Act.
As a result of the passage of these conservative agenda items, Mike Collier, the leading Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor, criticized Dan Patrick and the Texas state legislature for spearheading a “far-right” session designed to “fend off any potential primary challengers.”
Instead, Collier believes the legislature should have focused its efforts on the “energy grid, expanded health care access, property tax relief, much-needed infrastructure, better public schools, and gun safety laws.”
One of O’Rourke’s key issues is expanding Medicaid, an achievement that has long-eluded Texas Democrats in the last decade.
In addition, O’Rourke has called for the creation of clean energy jobs that “add to, do not replace, add to oil and gas jobs in the state.”
Historically, midterms tend to favor the party that does not control the White House. Dallas Express previously reported Republicans being strongly favored in the polls to maintain their seats in Texas during the 2022 midterms.
