Beto O’Rourke touts his oft-overlooked background — small-business owner — as Greg Abbott attacks him as job-killer

Facing Republican attacks that he is a threat to the Texas economy, Beto O’Rourke is playing up a part of his background that has gotten little attention since he burst on the statewide scene: small-business owner.

With GOP Gov. Greg Abbott attacking O’Rourke as a job-killing socialist, the former El Paso congressman has been increasingly discussing the experience on the campaign trail, and it is the subject of his campaign’s first significant paid media. O’Rourke co-founded Stanton Street Technology Group, an El Paso web-design company, in 1999, and owned it for over a decade.