Abbott and O'Rourke talk school safety, Texas border during only governor's debate
EDINBURG, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - After months of campaigning against each other, Governor Greg Abbott and his Democratic opponent Beto O'Rourke appeared on the same stage Friday night.
A new Quinnipiac poll released this week shows Abbott with a lead of seven percentage points over O'Rourke. The Texas-Mexico border noted as the most urgent concern for Texas voters.
The first ten plus minutes of the debate was devoted to this topic. With billions of dollars already devoted to the Operation Lone Star border security initiative, one question that was posed to the leading candidates, should *more* money be allocated towards the program?
"Candidly, we shouldn't have to allocate any money for it because this is all because of Joe Biden's failure to do the president's job to secure the border," Abbott said.
"No, it's clearly failed, the numbers are in. We're seeing not fewer but more engagements at our border," O'Rourke said.
Polling shows abortion is also high among voters - this was also addressed during Friday's debate.
"As it concerns abortion, Beto's position is the most extreme because he not only supports abortion of a fully developed child to the very last second of birth, he's even against providing medical care for a baby who survives an abortion," Abbott said.
"That's not true and it's completely a lie, I never said that and no one thinks that in the state of Texas," O'Rourke said. "This election is about reproductive freedom if you care about this you need to turn out and vote. I will fight to make sure that every woman in Texas can make her own decisions about her own body."
Now with the candidates going their separate ways, again, the decision is left to the voters.
