Texas governor

100 Days Until Gubernatorial Election Has Candidates' Teams Hitting the Ground

Candidates for Texas governor have thousands of volunteers canvassing the state

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Texas incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is looking for his third term and is being challenged by Democrat Beto O'Rourke.

An average of recent polls by Real Clear Politics showed Abbott up by 6 percentage points.

“He has consistently held a lead in all of the polling, but it's typically been a single-digit lead, and I think the governor would like to put some distance between himself and Beto O'Rourke,” said SMU Political Science Professor Matthew Wilson.

As for the next 100 days, Texans For Greg Abbott General Consultant Dave Carney told NBC 5, "We feel good. We have a very targeted goal of about nine million voters we are focusing on."

The campaign is also focusing on Hispanic outreach, through both social and paid media.

Carney describes a massive field operation, hitting a goal to talk to a million voters door to door, within the next 10 days.

Democrat Beto O’Rourke, the former El Paso Congressman, is crisscrossing the state this summer.

He has 75 events in 49 days. The events are more than just speeches, according to Director of Communications Chris Evans.

"Each of these events is a hub of action. People are registering to vote, signing up to volunteer," Evans said, adding hey have amassed 80,000 volunteers.

Wilson believes turnout is the key.

“He will both need to get that strong liberal base turnout as well as hold on to the lion's share of the Hispanic vote. And the Hispanic vote is something nationally that has been trending away from Democrats over the last couple of years and so that's going to be a real key to this race,” said Wilson.

Both Abbott and O’Rourke have the ability to raise a lot of money and already have. There are millions to be spent in the final months of this campaign.

Libertarian Mark Tippets and Green party member Delilah Barrios are expected to appear on the ballot as well.

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