Texas governor race: Early thoughts on Abbott vs. Hinojosa

Sounds good. We just have to get there. Election day is here and the polls now open across our area. Well, here in Texas, one of the biggest races on the ballot is between Governor Greg Abbott and Democrat challenger Gina Hinojosa. We have Dan Godwin live in Dallas this morning with a closer look at this race. Dan, good morning to you. A lot of eyes are on the Texas U.S. Senate race. But recent polling shows this race between the governor candidates, the gubernatorial candidates may be just as close. So that's gotta have surprised a lot of people and they're probably wondering, will the vote for Tallarico trickle down? Right, that is certainly one of the huge questions for this election day. And you're right, the race for Texas governor between the incumbent Greg Abbott and Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat. Has been closer than a lot of people would have initially predicted. Although if you look at the polling, Hinojosa is not running as strong as James Tallarico. She again has kept things close with Greg Abbott. But the conditions, the polling would certainly favor the governor at this point. So everything that we hear, people are really talking about the economy. They can't even afford their groceries, gas, a huge problem for them, a lot of concerns about immigration, even education. What are you seeing and hearing from people? What is most important to them? Well, for weeks and months throughout this campaign at every level, yes, as you talk We talk about the economy. Is driving this remarkable voter turnout that we have seen certainly in early voting. And yes, the price of gasoline, the price of groceries, inflation, the price of health care. The candidates have been going back and forth about who is best positioned to address that problem. Now, the Abbott campaign has said Gina Hinojosa wants to impose a state income tax, which they say would only... It increased the burden, the financial burden on Texas residents. The Hinojosa campaign flatly says, well, that's a lie. She does not support a state income tax, but her campaign says she does advocate policies that will be less favorable to the wealthy and powerful, to the millionaires and billionaires. All right, well, no Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since 1994, so we'll see tonight, Dan Godwin, whether Democrats can ride that predicted blue wave or whether the Republicans can hold them off. Thank you so much.