Behind in the polls, Beto O'Rourke, the Democrat running for Texas governor, is launching a 49-day campaign tour of the state.
The Texas Tribune reported Monday that O'Rourke, who is challenging incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, is planning 70 public events in more than 65 Texas counties as part of the tour. He's kicking off his tour July 19 in his hometown of El Paso.
Announcement of the tour came less than a week after the release of a poll by the University of Texas-Texas Politics Project showing Abbott leading O’Rourke, 45% to 39%.
The poll is similar to a CBS News-YouGov Texas survey released June 30, in which 49% supported Abbott and 41% backed O'Rourke.
Abbott has reserved nearly $20 million in advertising for his reelection campaign, the Tribune reported in an earlier story.
According to the news outlet, the ad bookings emphasize the financial advantage the Republican governor has over O'Rourke.
So far, the reservations, which Abbott's campaign has characterized as initial ad buys, cover a wide spectrum.
After Abbott's primary victory in March, his chief strategist, Dave Carney, said the campaign will spend over $100 million against O’Rourke, the Tribune said.
But O'Rourke’s campaign said Abbott's ad buys are a sign the governor is running scared.
The Tribune reported that O'Rourke is expected to hit all the major cities of the state during his new campaign tour, but also some of the small towns, like Marathon in far West Texas and Spearman in the Panhandle.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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