Beto needs to take advantage of this division
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Texas-Republicans-warn-divisions-could-hand-the-17251136.php?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=referral
Although Abbott won his primary with 66 percent of the vote, he’s had trouble with some of the leadership within the GOP for how he’s handled the pandemic and other legislative issues. Allen West, the former chairman of the party, ran against him in the Republican primary in March. Matt Rinaldi, the current chair who was elected to a two-year term during the convention this week, had endorsed former state Sen. Don Huffines over Abbott in the primary initially before later rescinding that to appear neutral in the race.
It led to an odd dynamic this week, with Abbott skipping out on speaking at the official convention meetings for the first time during his two terms as governor. The governor held an informal reception nearby and hasn’t had advertising around the convention like he did at past conventions.
Huffines, who was more of a presence at the convention, is adding to the concern among Republicans that some could skip the race. In an interview, he refused to say he’s voting for Abbott in the fall.
“We’re tired of having to hold our nose to vote for people who don’t do what we want,” Huffines said......
That fear is based on recent election data. In 2018, when O’Rourke came within 3 percentage points of defeating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, nearly every statewide Republican had the closest re-election of their career, even against dramatically underfunded Democratic opponents with little name recognition.
Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller all won their re-elections with just 51 percent of the vote in 2018, when four years earlier without O’Rourke at the top of the ticket they were all near 60 percent.
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