It’s looking like Texas Governor Greg Abbott is going to hold on to his office. Frankly, this was always going to be an uphill battle for Robert Francis ‘Beto’ O’Rourke.Abbott is a popular and effective governor, and Texas is still a red state. For now.Karen Townsend of Hot Air notes that Abbott is up seven points in the Quinnipiac Poll:
Quinnipiac: Abbott is up over Robert Francis O’Rourke by 7 pointsThe latest Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday shows Texas Governor Greg Abbott is up seven points over his Democrat challenger, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke. Though it is a single-point lead, it is well outside the margin of error. Six weeks out from the midterm elections in November, things are not looking good for O’Rourke. Governor Abbott leads in all recent polls.The poll of likely voters shows Abbott at 53% and O’Rourke at 46%. Some bad news for O’Rourke, besides trailing in the polls, is that the Quinnipiac poll shows there is little to no wiggle room with voters. Their minds are made up.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor, said the poll confirms that Republicans and Democrats are largely unified around their respective candidate. The poll found that 96% of Republicans favored Abbott, while 96% of Democrats favored O’Rourke.“There’s not a lot of wiggle room,” he said. “This is going to be a very base versus base election, and there are likely a lot of people in the middle who may not choose to vote.”
Over at the Washington Examiner, Paul Bedard points to polling from Emerson College/The Hill:
Texas Gov. Abbott pulling away from O’Rourke thanks to abortion and borderTexas Gov. Greg Abbott is pulling away from Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke, aided by the support of Hispanics and the state’s opposition to abortion.In the latest Emerson College/the Hill survey, the abortion issue — recently supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Court’s move to strike down Roe v. Wade — appeared to be helping the Republican governor.Ditto with the ongoing border crisis, which has prompted the governor to ship illegal immigrants to Washington, including dozens sent to the gate of Vice President Kamala Harris’s official home.“Voters were asked which candidate they align with most on the issue of abortion rights. Forty-nine percent align with Abbott while 44% align with O’Rourke. On the issue of border security, 58% align with Abbott and 39% with O’Rourke,” said the survey analysis.Overall, Abbott leads O’Rourke 50%-42%. The governor’s lead has grown by 1 point since the last Emerson survey in February.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls gives Abbott a comfortable lead of 8 points.
It seems as though the Democrats have all but given up on Beto.
Exit question: After losing this race, which office will O’Rourke run for next?
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