Beto News
Beto O’Rourke is running for governor of Texas in 2022 election
Hooray, you can pull your Beto yard signs back out: Beto O'Rourke has announced that he will be running for Texas governor against Gov. Greg Abbott for election in November 2022.
O'Rourke posted a video announcing his campaign on November 15, with an emphasis on the power failure grid in February 2021, in which he faults Texas' current political leadership, stating that Texans were "abandoned by those who were elected to serve and look out for them."
"It's a symptom of a much larger problem we have in Texas right now," he says.
"Those in positions of public trust have stopped listening to, serving, paying attention to, and trusting the people of Texas, and so they're not focused on the things that most of us actually agree on.
Instead, they're focusing on the kind of extremist policies that really only divide us and keep us apart, and stop us from working together on the truly big things that we want to achieve for one another.
It's a really small vision for such a big state, but it doesn't have to be that way, and I know that together we can get back to being big again."
A former congressman from El Paso, O'Rourke mounted a formidable campaign in 2018 when he ran for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz. He also ran for U.S. president in 2020.
In an interview with the Texas Tribune, O'Rourke said it was time for a change.
"I'm running to serve the people of Texas, and I want to make sure that we have a governor that serves everyone, helps to bring this state together to do the really big things before us and get past the small, divisive politics and policies of Greg Abbott," he said.
Democratic candidate for Texas Lieutenant Governor Mike Collier says in a statement that he's "thrilled to have Beto in this fight."
"In 2018, our ticket turned out a record number of voters, with Texans across the state making their voices heard," he says. "In 2022, we will build on that work and mobilize an electorate that has been frozen in their own homes, burdened with rising property taxes, and sold a vision that puts partisan politics before Texas parents, business owners, and our collective prosperity. With a strong Democratic ticket, the Texas GOP will spend the next year answering for a record of hypocrisy, government overreach, and shameful partisanship."
