Beto O’Rourke’s Political Strategists Say He Plans to Run for Governor of Texas

The race for Texas Governor is starting to get interesting on the democrats’ side. Beto O’Rourke’s political advisors say he’s planning to run for Texas Governor, according to Axios. The former Congressman from El Paso would give the Democrats a strong candidate to challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, whose recent approval ratings have gone nowhere but down due to his recent decisions regarding the pandemic and signing far right bills into law. 

O’Rourke has dedicated the last couple of months to promote voting rights across the state, expanding his popularity among Texans, and making the case for his credibility with protecting democracy. 

A recent poll made by the Dallas Morning News showed that O’Rourke has narrowed the gap with Abbott in a hypothetical race, with 37% leaning towards Beto.

According to David Wysong, O’Rourke’s former House chief of staff, no decision has been made yet. “He has been making and receiving calls with people from all over the state,” Wysong said. 

“We hope that he’s going to run,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, the state chair of the Democratic Party. “We think he’ll be our strongest candidate. We think he can beat Abbott because he’s vulnerable.” 

O’Rourke has a strong and large network of contacts that could help him raise enough money to beat Abbott. Back in 2018, Beto almost beat Senator Ted Cruz for the Senate seat, by a narrow margin of only 215,000 votes.