Pulse Magazine

On Sept. 30, Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott and his Democratic challenger former U.S. Sen. Beto O’Rourke came to the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) for the only gubernatorial debate before the 2022 midterm elections. KXAN-TV, which is under Nexstar Media Group, hosted the event at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s Performing Arts Center.

KXAN news anchor, Britt Moreno, hosted the debate. The debate panel included KXAN’s Sally Hernandez, Gromer Jeffers of the Dallas Morning News and Steve Spriester of KSAT San Antonio.

Abbott led the polls by 7.3 points at the time of the debate. However, O’Rourke attempted to close the gap with a little more than a month left before the Nov. 8 midterm elections. He used the debate as a platform to engage with Texans.

The debate included immigration, gun control, reproductive rights, law enforcement, and the Uvalde shooting.

Immigration

Texas, being a border state, often dealt with issues on immigration. The topic of illegal immigration and the illegal trafficking of goods and services has always been a key concern of the state. So, naturally, one of the first questions Gov. Abbott and O’Rourke were asked was what they would do to reduce the financial impact of immigration on border communities. O’Rourke answered first.

“What we need is a safe, legal, orderly path for anyone who wants to come here to work, to join family, or to seek asylum,” O’Rourke responded. “I’m going to work with local leaders, Republicans and Democrats alike, to ensure that we have a Texas-based guest worker program to alleviate shortages in our state for labor demands, reduce inflation, and address supply chain issues.”

A follow-up question asked Gov. Abbott whether more money from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice should be allocated to Operation Lone Star, a $4 billion initiative to prevent migrants from illegally crossing the border. He argues that the issue stems from the Biden administration.

“Candidly, we shouldn’t have to allocate any money for it.” Gov. Abbott stated. “This is all because of Joe Biden’s failure to do the president’s job to secure the border.”

Another question regarding immigration was Gov. Abbott’s take on the busing of immigrants. In 2022, Gov. Abbott’s office spent $12 million on a new program that would bus illegal immigrants to Chicago, Washington D.C., and New York City. The White House responded to the new program by calling it a “political stunt.” During the debate, Gov. Abbott addressed these claims.

“So this operation began after meeting with local officials, uh, sheriffs, mayors, police chiefs, and county judges. Where they were overrun with the number of migrants that Border Patrol had dumped into their tiny little communities. They needed relief, and busing was one of the ways of providing them relief, and thus began the process of busing migrants to cities that self-identified as sanctuary cities,” Gov. Abbott said.

Reproductive Rights

Sally Hernandez asked that Gov. Abbott elaborate on what he believes women can do and what type of assistance they would get in situations of rape and incest.

“Those victims can access health care immediately, as well as report it,” Gov. Abbott said. “Both of those have significant consequences. By accessing health care immediately, they can get the Plan B pill that can prevent the pregnancy from occurring in the first place. The state of Texas will pay for it to make sure that it is available for them.”

Abbott added, “An alternative, obviously, is to do what we can to assist and aid the victim… living assistance, baby supplies, all kinds of things that can help them. Also, we’ve increased funding for prenatal and postpartum care.”

O’Rourke reacted by encouraging everybody to vote. “This election O’ Rourke reacted by encouraging everybody to vote. “This election is about reproductive freedom. I will fight to make sure that every woman in Texas can make her own decisions about her own body, her own future, and her own health care.”

Gun Reform

Another critical topic in the debate was raising the age limit to buy an AR-15 from 18 to 21 years old. The panelists raised and questioned red flag laws and Gov. Abbott’s policy on them. “Well, let me tell you what I support and I don’t support. I support making it a felony for someone to lie on a background check. I signed that into law last year. O approve of expanding background checks to include juvenile records and also approve of making it a crime for criminal gangs to buy or possess a gun, but I’m still against red flag laws for the reason that it would deny lawful Texas gun owners their constitutional right to due process,” Gov. Abbott said.

Uvalde

The conversation of gun reform would not be complete without discussing the May 22, 2022, shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The shooting at Robb Elementary had the highest mortality rate of any school in Texas history. With 21 victims, 19 students and two educators, the nation felt the devastation of the shooting. Steve Spriester, a panelist on the debate, asked the candidates how they would prevent the problem from airing again in the future.

“I want every parent out there to know that the lives of your children are more important to me than the NRA (National Rifle Association), or any special interests, or any other political consideration,” O’Rourke said. “I will prioritize them ahead of everything else, and we will take action, and we will make progress. We will bring Republicans, Democrats, Independents alike together, and we’ll get the job done where this governor [Greg Abbott] has failed to do so.

Abbott responded to O’Rourke’s claims. He said, “Beto’s campaign continues to spew lies and false information … What I want to make sure that the leaders in Uvalde know is as we’ve shown, we don’t need to call a special session in order to take action. For six consecutive days after the shooting took place I issued directives to make schools safer and respond to the emergency in Uvalde.”

Students and residents from all over Texas came to UTRGV to show their support for their candidate, such as Floria Casarez, the mother of one of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting incident.

“We are definitely out here supporting Beto,” she said. “Beto has actually been out to Uvalde. He was the first one out there. He has been out there constantly reaching out to us. He’s supporting us 100 percent.”

Top and Bottom: Rio Grande Valley residents hold a ‘Beto for Texas’ sign outside of the UTRGV Edinburg campus.

Conclusion

The debate was on the last phases leading up to the midterm elections, and in the following weeks, Texans voted for their preferred candidate. On Nov. 8, election results revealed the Texas voters re-elected Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott will serve his third and final term as Texas governor. Concerns over immigration laws and women’s reproductive rights have caused Texans to question the state’s future over the next two years.