Plans aren’t set in stone, but it appears that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott plans to debate Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke once, and it will be in the Rio Grande Valley.
Preliminary plans are for a single face-off between the two candidates in an hour-long televised debate held Sept. 30 at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley campus in Edinburg.
With Abbott apparently pinning his entire campaign on border security, this seems the most appropriate location for such a forum. Unfortunately, however, participation in the event will not include any South Texas interests. The announced moderator and panelists are from television stations in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio.
O’Rourke challenged Abbott to three debates held in different parts of the state, but Abbott would only agree to a single debate in the Valley. Thirteen other candidates are on the Nov. 8 ballot for governor, representing the Libertarian and Green parties and various independent groups, but it appears certain none of them will be included in the debate.
For the past two years, Abbott essentially has focused most of his attention to border issues, taking steps to continue walling off our southern border. Citing the flow of illegal immigration and drugs, the governor has launched several initiatives in the name of border security, including deploying Texas Rangers, state troopers and National Guard troops to patrol the border area, even though they are not authorized to enforce federal laws such as those governing immigration. He also imposed rigid inspections of freight trucks entering the country from Mexico, even though those vehicles already had passed inspection at our ports of entry.
While these actions have cost Texas taxpayers billions of dollars both in their implementation and in the economic repercussions they created, with no measurable benefit, many Abbott backers have expressed support for them.
O’Rourke has voiced his opposition to most of these measures, but also has a wider range of topics in his campaign, such as calling for gun control measures in the wake of serial killings at a Uvalde elementary school in May, in August 2019 at a department store in El Paso and other places in between.
To be sure, border security directly affects Texas residents, especially those living along the border, even though much of the problem needs to be addressed by the federal government. But other critical issues face our governor, and his administration, beyond November. In addition to school safety, people also want to know how our state government plans to address our state’s still-inadequate power distribution, drought mitigation and various social and civil rights issues.
It isn’t likely that all of these issues can be addressed in one hour-long debate. A direct face-to-face forum between Abbott and O’Rourke should help voters see where they stand, and we trust the debate organizers will address as many topics as they can.
Inclusion of Valley interests would have helped local voters, and might have helped Abbott’s focus on the border. A single debate, however, needs to be more comprehensive.
We hope the two candidates recognize this need to fully inform voters, and plan to be as thorough as possible when answering panelists’ questions.
