Democrats Need More Than Beto O’Rourke If They Want To Flip Texas

Once again, everyone can’t stop talking about Beto O’Rourke.

FiveThirtyEight’s polling average1 shows a single-digit contest in the Texas gubernatorial race between O’Rourke and the Republican incumbent, Greg Abbott. Earlier this year, O’Rourke made headlines for his record-breaking fundraising, and the fallout from a succession of high-profile events in the state — the triggering of a preexisting state law banning abortions, continued strains on the power grid and a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history — are giving him unexpected leverage against Abbott. As a result, this gubernatorial election could be one of Texas’s most competitive since Democrats last held the office in the 1990s.