Beto O'Rourke will likely lose Uvalde County, despite focus on gun control
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With over 95 percent of votes accounted for as of 11 p.m. ET, it looks as though incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) will once again carry Uvalde County, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two adults during a devastating school shooting back in May.
Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke, who angrily confronted Abbott in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary shooting and accused the governor of "doing nothing," made the deadly incident a central issue of his campaign, per The Dallas Morning News. Despite those efforts, he held just about 38 percent of the vote in Uvalde at the time of this writing, while Abbott held 60 percent.
It's worth noting that 35 family members of Uvalde victims threw their support behind O'Rourke at the end of September, citing Abbott's "inaction on gun control measures," summarizes The Texas Tribune. But still, as highlighted by The Texas Observer's Gus Bova, Uvalde County as a whole has long voted red, having reportedly gone for former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, Sen. Ted Cruz (R) in 2018, and Abbott in 2014 and 2018.
Overall, though "O'Rourke has broken fundraising records against Abbott and given him the toughest challenge of his long political career," writes The Texas Tribune, the governor was nonetheless able to secure re-election, per a race call from The Associated Press and a projection from NBC News.
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