PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas — On the last day of early voting in Texas, the latest polls show incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, the likely Republican candidate, still maintaining a narrow edge in the polls over his expected Democratic challenger, Beto O’Rourke.
On Friday, O’Rourke was discussing his vision of the state’s future with students of Prairie View A&M University. It’s one of several stops O’Rourke is making over the weekend in the Houston area as he tries to get out the vote.
O’Rourke spoke for about 45 minutes at the school and took questions from students in the crowd of around 200. He spoke about the long history of the school’s students fighting for the right to vote. He also covered education, internet access, health care.
This visit comes just over a week after O’Rourke stopped in Houston, where his focus was on the failure of the state’s electric grid in February 2021.
On Friday, O’Rourke continued attacking Abbott on that issue after a Houston Chronicle report that the former ERCOT CEO said the order to raise energy prices during that winter storm came straight from the governor himself.
“It’s really clear that Abbott directed the mess that we’re all paying for right now,” said O’Rourke during an interview with KHOU 11 after his Friday event. “When your utility bill has gone up 40 to 50 bucks a month over what it was last year, and you know now that you’re gonna be paying that ‘Abbott tax’ for the next 20 years, we now know why from that testimony.”
Abbott’s campaign said the governor did not play a part in directly setting those prices during the storm.
Governor Abbott made a campaign stop in Houston on Wednesday. He plans to stop in San Angelo, Victoria, and San Antonio on Monday, the day before the primary election.
O’Rourke plans to knock on doors in Missouri City on Saturday.