Beto O'Rourke in El Paso for election night 2022, enjoyed early lead in hometown

Martha Pskowski, El Paso Times
·2 min read
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As of early Wednesday, Beto O'Rourke held 63% of the vote in El Paso County compared to 35% for Gov. Greg Abbott, with all vote centers reporting.

The unofficial early vote count in El Paso County gave Democratic candidate for governor O'Rourke a comfortable lead over his Republican opponent. According to the first tally released at 7 p.m. MST, in El Paso O'Rourke got 64% of early votes and 34% for Abbott.

When all votes were counted in El Paso County, O'Rourke had received 103,864 votes compared to Abbott with 57,255 votes. Abbott was easily elected to his third, four-year term after all Texas votes were counted. That count showed O'Rourke under performing in key Texas counties.

As the first results came in, a crowd gathered at the Epic Railyard Event Center, 2201 E Mills Ave, waiting for the candidate to arrive. Counties across Texas are releasing unofficial early voting results and beginning to count Election Day votes.

O'Rourke has maintained a marathon pace of campaigning during 2022. Election Day has been no exception. He made stops in San Antonio, Dallas and Houston before arriving in the Sun City before the first results rolled in. O'Rourke trailed in the polls throughout the race and is hoping to pull off an upset victory over incumbent Republican Governor Greg Abbott.

More:Election Day live coverage in El Paso for 2022 Texas midterm

O'Rourke planned to greet voters at Mesita Elementary School, 3307 N Stanton St., before kicking off an election night party at Epic Railyard, a restored warehouse in South El Paso. Poll have closed across Texas as the initial results are coming in.

Gubernatorial candidate for the Democratic party, Beto O'Rourke speaks during a rally at UTEP on Nov. 3, 2022.
Gubernatorial candidate for the Democratic party, Beto O'Rourke speaks during a rally at UTEP on Nov. 3, 2022.

O'Rourke served in Congress representing Texas's 16th district from 2013 to 2019. Since launching his campaign for U.S. Senate in 2017, O'Rouke has spent the better part of five years running for public office. In 2018, he lost to incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Then in 2019 he suspended a campaign for the Democratic nomination for president. His political future is uncertain if he comes up short a third time.

Staff writer Martha Pskowski may be reached at mpskowski@elpasotimes.com and @psskow on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Beto O'Rourke in El Paso for 2022 Texas live election results