You won’t get another Texas governor debate. But here’s what Abbott and Beto told us in one-on-one interviews

DALLAS — While there may not be another gubernatorial debate before the election, Y’all-itics has you covered.

In a sign of just how competitive the race has become, Gov. Greg Abbott and Beto O’Rourke both agreed to one-on-one interviews with Y’all-itics as we approach the start of early voting. And just the willingness of the state’s top two candidates to speak to us at length in the final weeks is not lost on us.

So, even if you think you have your mind made up in the race for Texas governor, hear them out. We asked them pointed questions. They answered some. And they tried to dodge others.

Watch both interviews below, followed by the full recaps:

As Gov. Greg Abbott seeks to convince voters to send him back to Austin for a third term, the Republican can rattle off a long list of major conservative accomplishments during his tenure, from allowing Texans to carry firearms without a permit to a complete ban on abortion.  

And both issues are playing an outsized role in the race for governor and the Republican incumbent recently sat down for a one-on-one interview with Jason Whitely to discuss them and many others.

At least one prominent conservative, state Sen. Robert Nichols, recently said he would vote to add an exception for rape to Texas’ abortion law.

The governor would not answer specifically whether he’d support a future exception for rape or incest, but he did tell us something that must be addressed is defining what it means to protect a mother’s life.

“And there’s been too many allegations that have been made about ways in which the lives of the mother are not being protected, and so, that must be clarified,” Abbott said on Inside Texas Politics.  “We want to see if there are ways that we can make sure that the lives of both the mother and the baby can be protected.  That’s our focus.”

Abbott specifically mentioned doctors not taking care of some women with ectopic pregnancies and some cases of miscarriage. But he says treatments for both are legal under the state’s abortion law. 

Our skyrocketing property taxes and what can be done to bring them down is another subject taking up a lot of oxygen on the campaign trail.

Abbott says lawmakers have added well over $10 billion in additional funding for schools since 2019. That, he claims, has helped to slightly lower the school portion of the tax rate in counties throughout the state. 

But that’s not been the case in Tarrant County in general and Fort Worth ISD in particular. 

That district told us that the state contributed 45% of the funding the district needed to operate in 2015. By 2020, the district says that figure had dropped to 30%. And for this year, the figure is 27%.

When we asked him if the funding formula will ever get back to parity, where the state provides half and property owners provide half, the governor told us his ultimate goal is to eliminate the maintenance and operation component of the school district property tax bill.

He says he would accomplish this through a property tax reduction fund that already exists in the state of Texas. 

“Any time we have any session where we have any surplus, I want to continue to put money into that fund to reduce property taxes on an ongoing basis until that maintenance and operation component of school property taxes is completely eliminated,” Abbott said.

With the current surplus we’re enjoying, for instance, the governor says he would use at least $13.5 billion of it to further buy down property tax rates.

The aftermath of the Uvalde massacre continues to drag down the governor’s approval ratings. 

Our recent poll, “Texas Decides,” a study of likely Texas voters and a joint effort between the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (THPF) and Tegna Texas stations WFAA, KHOU, KENS and KVUE, found that 37% of Texans had a less favorable view of Governor Abbott after the tragedy.  33% said they had a less favorable view of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which had 91 troopers on scene that day.

We asked the governor if he would fire Steve McCraw, the agency’s director.

“Any hiring or firing decision will be based upon the evidence.  And we’ve got to get to the evidence, get to the bottom of exactly what happened to see who is accountable and why they did wrong,” Abbott told us.

 As Beto O’Rourke seeks to convince voters to send him to Austin as governor, the Democrat is enjoying some momentum heading into the final weeks before the election, including record fundraising and single digit polls.

The issues in the race for governor are familiar, from abortion to gun control, property taxes to the border.  And the Democrat recently sat down for a one-on-one interview with Jason Whitely to discuss them and many others.

It quickly became clear in our conversation with O’Rourke that he is counting on voter anger and their desire for something different.

“People in Texas now want to vote for change and something better,” O’Rourke said on Inside Texas Politics.

Republicans, including the governor, have accused O’Rourke of supporting abortion up until the moment of birth. But the Democrat tells us it’s simply not true and is just a part of the ongoing GOP strategy to scare people.

While O’Rourke wouldn’t tell us specifically what restrictions he would support, he does say he’d like to return to the standard set under Roe v. Wade, that held that a constitutional right to liberty also included a woman’s right to terminate her pregnancy. But the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe earlier this year.

“My position on reproductive healthcare freedom, which is that every woman should be able to make her own decision about her own body, her own future, her own healthcare, that is supported by the vast majority of our fellow Texans, including Republicans in this state,” O’Rourke said.

The aftermath of the Uvalde massacre continues to play a significant role on the campaign trail as well.

Our recent poll, “Texas Decides,” a study of likely Texas voters and a joint effort between the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (THPF) and Tegna Texas stations WFAA, KHOU, KENS and KVUE, found that while a similar percentage of Texans had a less favorable view of O’Rourke as they did Governor Abbott following the tragedy, O’Rourke received the biggest bump among political figures in terms of favorability, with 31% viewing him in a more positive light.

O’Rourke says if he were governor, he would start trying to heal that community and limit gun violence moving forward by calling a special session.

And in terms of policy, O’Rourke reiterated his support for universal background checks, red flag laws and raising the minimum age to purchase an assault weapon from 18 to 21.

“There is nearly universal support for those three ideas, raising the age, red flag laws, universal background check,” said O’Rourke.  “Even folks who will never vote for me can agree on at least that much.”

As we sat down with O’Rourke on his front porch, we were only a dozen miles from the border.

While he tells us the Biden Administration isn’t doing enough to protect the border, he says nobody is.  And the Democrat calls Operation Lone Star a failure because he says the $4 Billion effort hasn’t led to fewer encounters at the border, but instead even more.  And O’Rourke calls the busing of migrants to cities in the northeast a political stunt.

He gave Jason Whitely an example of what he would do instead.

“So, for example,” he said, “a Texas-based guest worker program where we bring Republicans and Democrats around the table, work with our federal partners, make sure that if you want to come here and work a job in El Paso or north Texas for that matter, for which we cannot find someone born in this state who will actually do that job, that there’s safe, legal, orderly path for you to be able to come to this country.”

In terms of the race itself, our poll also found Governor Abbott leading Democrat Beto O’Rourke by 7% (51% to 44%) among likely voters.  Among most likely (almost certain) voters, the lead grows to 10% (53% – 43%).  1% of voters in both categories (likely/most likely) says they’ll vote for Libertarian Mark Tippetts and Green Party candidate Delilah Barrios.

Early voting starts October 24. The election will be held November 8.