Texas Governor Targets Hispanic Vote Ahead of O'Rourke Face-Off
Texas Governor Greg Abbott will kick off his re-election campaign in the Rio Grande Valley this weekend as the Republican Party seeks to strengthen its toehold in the heavily Hispanic region. The incumbent is set to give an address to the Hispanic Leadership Forum in the border town of McAllen on Saturday. His appearance comes less than eight weeks before a primary election against ultra-conservative rivals. But with pundits predicting an easy victory, his real focus may be his likely Democratic opponent in November’s general election, Beto O’Rourke.
Abbott, 64, has mostly ignored the challenges mounted from fellow Republicans who say he’s insufficiently conservative. Instead, the governor touts his track record of overseeing some of the country’s strongest economic growth amid a host of corporate relocations to the low-tax state.
Meanwhile, party leaders have stepped up their efforts to establish a GOP base in South Texas, an area that has traditionally voted heavily Democratic but showed a surprising level of support for former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
In the Rio Grande Valley, which is more than 90% Hispanic, the incumbent is vying for voters who traditionally support Democrats. The state Republican Party has set up outreach offices and stepped up recruitment of candidates for local offices in the region, which shifted dramatically to the right during the 2020 presidential election and delivered counties such as Zapata to the GOP for the first time in a century. Hispanics comprise 40% of the state’s population.
An October poll by the University of Texas showed Abbott with a nine-point advantage over O’Rourke, 49, a former three-term House member from El Paso who lost a 2018 Senate bid.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-07/texas-governor-targets-hispanic-vote-ahead-of-o-rourke-face-off?srnd=politics-vp
