The Heat is on! O’Rourke, Abrams to run for governor in Texas, Georgia

By: Roy Douglas Malonson & NNPA They say things are hot in the south, well, when it comes to politics, it’s about to be scorching. That’s because two major announcements for gubernatorial seats in Texas and Georgia are about to make 2022 “one for the record books.” Earlier this month, former congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’ Rourke launched his campaign to run for governor of Texas. O’Rourke tweeted, “Together, we can push past the small and divisive politics that we see in Texas today — and get back to the big, bold vision that used to define a Texas big enough for all of us.” O’Rourke has become a person that many millennials have connected with. So what is the draw? Well, he is an El Paso native and former punk rocker who launched an internet services company. He served on the city council before being elected to Congress in 2011 — and is now making his third run for office in four years. His first statewide run in Texas against Republican Ted Cruz in 2018, electrified Democrats, where the party has rarely been competitive for a generation. He founded and currently leads Powered by People, a Texas-based organization that works to expand democracy and produce Democratic victories through voter registration and direct voter engagement. Powered by People has helped register over 250,000 unregistered Texans to vote since its inception in December 2019. He rose from little-known congressman to fundraising dynamo, setting what, at the time, was the all-time record for money raised for a Senate bid. And he did it with a relatively bare-bones campaign structure, mostly driving himself to campaign events across the state with two staffers and live-streaming it all on Facebook. When he didn’t get the senate seat, he ran for president, and now he is in it to win it as governor in 2022. For many Texas Democrats, O’ Rourke could be the party’s only chance of denying Abbott a third term. A lot of Democratic hopes are riding on O’Rourke this election cycle, but few may be more consequential to the […]

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