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(CNN Spanish) --
The governor of Texas since 2015, Republican Greg Abbott, will seek reelection in the elections next Tuesday, November 8, the same day that the momentous midterm legislative elections are held at the national level, in which President Joe Biden will test his government.
Abbott, 64, won the 2014 and 2018 Texas gubernatorial elections and is now seeking a third term against Democratic candidate Beto O'Rouke.
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In recent years, a clear Republican tendency has been consolidated in Texas, one of the largest and most populous states in the country, and the Democrats have not won there since the time of Ann Richards, governor between 1991 and 1995.
Abbott, a former member of the Texas Supreme Court and a former state attorney general, will now try to continue that trend and settle into the governorship.
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How has it been so far?
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Abbott's two terms as governor
Abbott is widely recognized as a defender of the right to bear arms, and in his first campaign in 2014 he even had the support of the National Rifle Association (NRA).
Shortly after assuming his first term in 2015, he promoted two laws that expanded this right: one of them allowed carrying weapons in public, while the second enabled university students over 21 years of age to carry weapons inside the universities, although these should be covered.
In addition, Abbott regularly posts photos of himself at shooting ranges on Twitter.
This position has generated strong support among some Republican voters, who celebrate expanded rights, but also strong criticism among Democrats and moderates, especially after a series of mass shootings in the country and in Texas, the most recent this year in Uvalde.
During his time in power in Texas, Abbott has become a Republican reference, with a style of government marked by deregulation and "leisure", and the focus on restrictions on abortion, the rejection of immigration and the strict border monitoring, in addition to weapons.
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One of the most critical moments of his term, however, came in the winter of 2021, when a storm affected the State's energy infrastructure and left millions of homes without light or heat in the midst of extreme cold.
Abbott was criticized for its lack of preparation for the crisis, and its image was further damaged when it tried to blame renewable energies, such as wind and solar, for the cuts, when the authorities later determined that the problem was due to shortages of natural gas.
This is Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke, the main candidates for governor in Texas
The current campaign in Texas
Abbott won the internal Republican Party this year with 66.5% of the vote.
In addition to maintaining a tight grip on the Texas governorship, Abbott is nationally aligned with Donald Trump, and even supported the former president's judicial attempts to delegitimize and reverse his 2020 election loss to Biden in court.
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In recent months, he has been trying to cement the right-wing electorate with a law that restricts abortions in the state and other legislation that allows carrying weapons without a special permit.
Abbott, a fierce critic of Biden's immigration policies, began busing hundreds of volunteer migrants to Washington and New York earlier this year.
Texas has paid $12,707,720.92 to carry out these transfers, according to information obtained by CNN, and the number of affected migrants ranges between 8,051 and 9,033.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll, Abbott enjoys a 51% approval rating, but at the same time 47% of the electorate disapproves of his job.
With reporting from CNN's Dakin Andone, Maeve Reston, Eric Levenson, Madeline Holcombe, Daniel Dale, Gregory Krieg, Caroline Kelly, Devan Cole, Polo Sandoval and Andy Rose
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