Beto O'Rourke Mulls 2022 Run For Texas Governor

EL PASO, TX — Beto O'Rourke, the 2020 presidential candidate and Ted Cruz challenger in the 2018 Texas U.S. Senate race, is preparing a run for governor of the Lone Star State. Members of O'Rourke's political team confirmed the possibility with Axios, the news outlet reported Sunday.

The move would signal a political comeback for O'Rourke, who holds no current elected office. When made official, O'Rourke will seek to challenge incumbent Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in the 2022 election.

O'Rourke became known nationally in 2018 when he challenged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, losing to the Republican by only three percentage points in a normally solid red state.

"No decision has been made," David Wysong, O'Rourke's former House chief of staff and a longtime adviser, told Axios. "He has been making and receiving calls with people from all over the state."

O'Rourke served as Texas' 16th Congressional District representative from when he was first elected in 2012 to 2019, after his Senate loss to Cruz. Before that, the El Paso native was a member of the El Paso City Council from 2005-2011.

Abbott's recent right turns on controversial issues such as abortion, the border crisis and critical race theory could give O'Rourke an opening in seeking the governorship. The incumbent's approval rating has dipped below 50 percent, a recent poll from the Dallas Morning News shows.

A hypothetical match-up between Abbott and O'Rourke went from Abbott winning by 12 percentage points to five in the last two months, a separate poll from the newspaper states.

Actor Matthew McConaughey has fared even better than O'Rourke in a potential Abbott showdown, however. The actor leads Abbott by nine percentage points, after slightly trailing the governor two months ago, the Morning News reports.

O'Rourke is expected to make a formal announcement for his Texas governor campaign later this year, according to Axios.