Texas gubernatorial candidates Greg Abbott and Robert “Beto” O’Rourke will be viewing the results of the 2022 midterm election in towns on the southern border with Mexico.
O’Rourke will end his campaign in his hometown of El Paso, and Abbott, the incumbent, will hold his election night watch party in McAllen at Quinta Mazatlan, a historical marker and world birding center.
Abbot is running for his third term as governor on a platform that includes promoting economic growth, defending the Second Amendment, supporting law enforcement, and protecting religious liberty.
The governor said he is also focused on enhancing border security, which he claims is the number one issue for many Rio Grande Valley residents. He stated that he had spent more time in the Rio Grande Valley than any other governor in Texas history, according to Fox 4 News.
“We keep going there, making connections there, and that’s why we’re seeing greater percentage of Hispanics in the Rio Grande Valley supporting both my campaign and campaigns run by Hispanics themselves,” said Abbott to FOX 4 on Sunday.
The University of Texas at Austin published a poll through The Texas Politics Project, which concluded that immigration and border security was the most critical issue to Texas voters.
Abbott supporter Jacob Wintersteen told Fox 4 News that he and other volunteers from the Houston area drove out to help turn out Republican voters in the Rio Grande Valley, a part of the state that has historically favored the Democratic Party.
“It is changing, an area that until recently didn’t have a Republican congressman or woman for the last 100 years,” said Wintersteen.
O’Rourke’s campaign has also been touching on the issue of border security, promoting supposedly bipartisan solutions and arguing for overturning “dangerously outdated laws.”
“When we focus on solutions instead of stunts, we can invest in border enforcement that actually works. That means more smart technology like sensors, surveillance towers, and drones that can detect crossings between ports of entry and help enforcement authorities carry out arrests,” claims O’Rourke on his campaign website.