AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke is running a “flailing” campaign, as evidenced by the challenger’s claims that Abbott is a “thug” and “authoritarian.”
Abbott, who spoke with the Washington Examiner at his office inside the Texas Capitol Monday, described O’Rourke’s jabs as an attempt to distract voters from his poor track record, about-faces on issues like gun rights and the exportation of liquefied natural gas, and poor polling numbers.
“He’s showing that he believes I have November because no one talks like that who is running a very good campaign,” said the Republican. “That’s a very typical example of a candidate who is flailing.”
Robert Francis O’Rourke, who goes by “Beto,” was a U.S. congressman for the district that includes El Paso, Texas, from 2013 through 2019. He was unsuccessful in a run for the U.S. Senate in Texas in 2018 and again in a presidential bid in 2020. O’Rourke secured the Democratic Party’s nomination on March 1 to take on Abbott in the general election as the incumbent goes after a third four-year term.
APPREHENSIONS AT SOUTHERN BORDER ROSE TO 165,000 IN FEBRUARY, MOSTLY SINGLE ADULTS
“He’s lost two races in a row — way behind in this race. He’s grasping for straws right now. Anybody who talks that way is a person who is going down for the third time,” said Abbott.
During an interview at the South by Southwest festival in Austin Saturday, O’Rourke dubbed Abbott “a thug” and “an authoritarian” because energy companies raked in billions of dollars while Texans suffered without electricity and heat for days and others faced exorbitant price surges when a winter storm descended on the state in February 2021.
Because electric utilities cut off power, companies fought for remaining gas supplies from companies that gouged prices. In one case, electric companies paid 75 times the going rate for gas. O’Rourke pointed to the $11 billion profit that natural gas companies made amid the storm.
“Not only did [Abbott] not claw back those illegal profits; not only was there no justice for more than 700 people who were killed, who literally froze to deaths in their homes, outside, in their cars … but he’s taking millions of dollars in payoffs from these same people,” O’Rourke said. “He’s got his own oligarch here in the state of Texas.”
Kelcy Lee Warren, who runs Dallas-based Energy Transfer Partners, gave a $1 million donation to Abbott’s campaign in June 2021, four times greater than any previous donation.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Abbott did not address the accusations of allowing energy companies to gouge prices.
A Real Clear Politics average of polls conducted since December 2021 has Abbott with a 9-point advantage over O’Rourke.
