Abbott, O'Rourke Win Primaries for Texas Governor, Setting Up Battle for Midterms

Texas' Republican Gov. Greg Abbott will face off against Democrat Beto O'Rourke in the race for governor this November after the two candidates won their respective primaries last night, per AP.

Both men easily beat their challengers and secured their party's nomination for governor.

"Tonight, Republicans sent a message they want to keep Texas the land of opportunity and prosperity for absolutely everybody, the prosperity that we have delivered over the past eight years," Abbott said at his rally in Corpus Christi.

O'Rourke celebrated at a rally in Fort Worth, where he flipped Texas' largest GOP county in 2018.

"This group of people, and then some, are going to make me the first Democrat to be governor of the state of Texas since 1994," O'Rourke told supporters in Fort Worth, where he flipped Texas' largest red county in 2018. "This is on us. This is on all of us." 

Meanwhile, an endorsement from former President Donald Trump wasn't enough to give incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton the votes he needed to avoid a runoff.  He will face Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, grandson of one president and the nephew of another, in a May runoff election. While Paxton won more votes than Bush, neither man captured enough to win the primary.