Poll: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Leads Beto O’Rourke in Gubernatorial Matchup

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is leading his potential Democrat challenger, Beto O’Rouke (D), in a head-to-head gubernatorial matchup, a Climate Nexus survey released this week found.

The survey asked respondents, “If the election for Texas governor were being held today, and the candidates were Beto O’Rourke the Democrat and Greg Abbott the Republican, for whom would you vote?”

Forty-five percent of likely voters said they would support the Texas governor, compared to 40 percent who said the Democrat. Seven percent said, “Neither candidate or other candidate,” and another eight percent said they remained unsure. 

Overall, 87 percent said they will definitely or probably vote in the Texas governor’s race in November. 

The survey, taken February 1-9, 2022, among 933 registered voters in Texas, has a margin of error of +/- 3.3 percent:

The Lone Star State’s primary race — the first in the nation kicking off the midterm election season — is right around the corner, taking place Tuesday, March 1. It is yet to be seen if Abbott can handily defeat his primary challengers and avoid a runoff, allowing him to focus more immediately on the general election, where O’Rourke appears as the frontrunner on the Democrat side. 

As Breitbart News reported:

The failed presidential and Senate candidate of the past—he ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018, and unsuccessfully for the Democrat presidential nomination in 2020—has in his career staked out extreme leftist positions on a number of issues, particularly the Second Amendment.

In 2019, for instance, O’Rourke threatened gun owners by saying “we’re going to take” away their AR-15s and AK-47s, something he stood by for years. But last week in Tyler, Texas, O’Rourke tried to change his stance by now saying “I’m not interested in taking anything from anyone.”

O’Rourke still supports gun control though, as in the next breath he ripped constitutional carry measures that Abbott backed. “I want to make sure that we protect our fellow Texans far better than we’re doing right now,” O’Rourke said. “And that we listen to law enforcement, which Greg Abbott refused to do. He turned his back on them when he signed that permitless carry bill that endangers the lives of law enforcement in a state that’s seen more cops and sheriff’s deputies gunned down than in any other.”

Abbott left a simple message upon O’Rourke’s entry into the race in November, listing his potential challenger’s political positions with a simple “Bring it”: