AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke is running for governor of Texas, pursuing a blue breakthrough in America\u2019s biggest red state after his star-making U.S. Senate campaig\u2026<\/b>
\nBy PAUL J. WEBER AUSTIN, Texas (AP) \u2014 Democrat Beto O\u2019Rourke is running for governor of Texas, pursuing a blue breakthrough in America\u2019s biggest red state after his star-making U.S. Senate campaign in 2018 put him closer than anyone else in decades. O\u2019Rourke\u2019s announcement Monday kicks off a third run for office in as many election cycles. He burst into the 2020 Democratic presidential primary as a party phenomenon but dropped out just eight months later as money and fanfare dried up. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be easy. But it is possible,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of his announcement. \u201cI do believe, very strongly, from listening to people in this state that they\u2019re very unhappy with the direction that (Gov.) Greg Abbott has taken Texas.\u201d O\u2019Rourke\u2019s return sets up one of 2022\u2019s highest-profile \u2014 and potentially most expensive \u2014 races for governor. Abbott, a Republican, is seeking a third term and has put Texas on the vanguard of hard-right policymaking in state capitals and emerged as a national figure. A challenge from O\u2019Rourke, a media-savvy former congressman with a record of generating attention and cash, could tempt Democrats nationwide to pour millions of dollars into trying \u2014 again \u2014 to flip Texas. Still, O\u2019Rourke is coming back an underdog. Although the state\u2019s growing population of Latino, young and college-educated voters is good for Democrats, the party\u2019s spending blitz in the 2020 presidential election left them with nothing. Texas has not elected a Democratic governor since Ann Richards in 1990. And freshly gerrymandered political maps, signed into law by Abbott in October, bolster Republicans\u2019 standing in booming suburban districts that have been drifting away from the party. That could mean fewer competitive races and lower turnout. O\u2019Rourke,49, will have to win over not only hundreds of thousands of new voters but some of his old ones. When O\u2019Rourke lost to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018 by just 2.5 percentage points, Abbott won reelection by double digits that same year, reflecting a large number of Texans who voted for O\u2019Rourke and for the GOP governor. That crossover appeal was a hallmark of a Senate campaign propelled by energetic rallies, ideological blurriness and unscripted livestreams on social media. But as a presidential candidate, O\u2019Rourke molded himself into a liberal champion who called for slashing immigration enforcement and mandatory gun buybacks. In one pronouncement heard far and wide in firearm-friendly Texas, O\u2019Rourke declared: \u201cHell, yes, we\u2019re gonna take your AR-15.\u201d Abbott has already begun working to make sure voters do not forget that and other stances O\u2019Rourke took as a presidential candidate. As O\u2019Rourke got in the race Monday, Abbott was on the U.S.-Mexico border, where a longtime Democrat in the statehouse announced he was switching parties and joining the GOP. Sharp inroads Republicans made with Hispanic voters along the border last year alarmed Democrats, and O\u2019Rourke will spend the first days of his campaign this week trying to make a fast impression in South Texas. \u201cThey weren\u2019t just at odds with Texans. They were hostile to Texans,\u201d Abbott said of O\u2019Rourke\u2019s positions during his White House run. \u201cHe wants to go take your guns and deny your Second Amendment rights. We will not let that happen.\u201d In the interview, O\u2019Rourke signaled he\u2019ll try to reclaim the middle in his bid for governor. He blasted Abbott for a \u201cvery extremist, divisive\u201d agenda that caters to the hard right. Asked about gun control, he said he does not believe Texans want to see their families \u201cshot up with weapons that were designed for war.\u201d But he pivoted quickly to slamming Abbott abolishing background checks and training for concealed handgun permits, gun regulations that once had bipartisan support. O\u2019Rourke argued that the broad coalition of voters that powered his near-upset in 2018, which included Republican moderates, could be formed again. \u201cWhat I\u2019m going to be focused on is listening to and bringing people together to do the big work before us,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd obviously that first big job is winning this election. But the voters and the votes are there.\u201d O\u2019Rourke officially announced his candidacy in a two-minute video, in which he directly speaks to the camera and criticizes a GOP agenda that he says ignores things voters \u201cactually agree on,\u201d such as expanding Medicare and legalizing marijuana. \u201cThose in positions of public trust have stopped listening to, serving and paying attention to the people of Texas,\u201d he said. O\u2019Rourke isn\u2019t the only one in the race out to regain his footing in Texas. For most of his six years in office, Abbott has had an aura of political invincibility. But his job approval rating has slipped during the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 70,000 Texans, combined with a deadly winter blackout and a legislative session that passed new barriers to voting and effectively banned most abortions in the state. Abbott also aggressively bucked the Biden administration\u2019s pandemic policies, angering some of Texas\u2019 largest schools and employers by banning mask and vaccine mandates. Despite the conservative policy victories, Abbott faces pressure from the right flank of his party. Two conservative firebrands, including former Florida congressman Allen West, have launched primary challenges. Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Abbott but also has pressured him to audit the state\u2019s entire 2020 election results over false claims of fraud, even though he won Texas. Abbott has refused. Still, the Texas governor enters the race with a $55 million campaign war chest, the biggest of any incumbent governor in the country. Trump\u2019s was a narrow victory by Texas standards,5.5 percentage points, a closer finish than his win in the storied battleground of Ohio. For deflated Democrats, it was proof that Texas is turning \u2014 albeit painfully slowly. The party struggled for months to identify a challenger to Abbott, resulting in a \u201cBeto or bust\u201d plan reflecting the enduring skepticism even in their own ranks. No other Democrats have entered the race or have flirted with challenging Abbott. Actor Matthew McConaughey, who lives in Austin, has teased a run for governor for months but has not said whether he would make one as a Republican or a Democrat. Any shot for O\u2019Rourke will require at least a touch of the magic of his Senate run against Cruz, when the onetime punk rocker from El Paso won over suburban moderates and road-tripped to the reddest of Texas\u2019 254 counties. He said he will again show up in tough places for Democrats, who for decades have failed to translate torrid growth and demographic shifts in Texas to a path out of the political wilderness. Supercharged Texas has boomed to nearly 30 million people over the last decade and has five of the nation\u2019s 12 largest cities. Texas\u2019 explosive growth is driven almost entirely by new Latino and Black residents, traditionally Democratic voters, and Democrats say those demographic shifts combined with fatigue over crises and GOP culture wars could drive Abbott out of office. Republicans have mocked O\u2019Rourke as overhyped since he dropped out of the presidential race. One of O\u2019Rourke\u2019s first projects after ending his White House bid \u2014 leading a charge to flip the Texas House \u2014 failed to pick up a single additional seat for Democrats.<\/p>\n