Elections

O’Rourke And Abbott Set Date For Debate

Gov. Greg Abbott has agreed to one debate with his gubernatorial opponent, Beto O’Rourke, on Sept. 30 in the Rio Grande Valley.

Gov. Abbott had previously agreed to the Sept. 30 date, but Mr. O’Rourke had remained noncommittal, as he was also pushing for additional “town hall-style debates.” The debate will be hosted by Nexstar Media Group and KXAN on the evening of Sept. 30 at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Edinburg.

The debate over debates has been percolating throughout the Summer, but Abbott’s campaign had previously said the Nexstar/KXAN debate is “the one and only gubernatorial debate of the 2022 election.”

The Abbott campaign said in a statement, “In between television appearances in New York & fundraising in Hollywood, we are pleased Beto O’Rourke is taking the time to debate Governor Abbott in the only statewide televised debate, to be held in the Rio Grande Valley & hosted by Nexstar.”

But Mr. O’Rourke is pushing for more, saying in a tweet, “Just accepted 4 more debates.” The candidate added, “Looking forward to holding Abbott accountable for his indefensible record during these town hall-style debates where we’ll both take questions directly from voters.”

There is no indication that Gov. Abbott will accept anything more than the one Nexstar/KXAN debate, which may generate a small audience, as it’s on a Friday night during high school football season.

Nick Anderson

Writer, editor, photographer and editorial cartoonist Nick Anderson has joined the Reform Austin newsroom, where he will employ the artistic skill and political insights that earned a Pulitzer Prize to drive coverage of Texas government. As managing editor, Anderson is responsible for guiding Reform Austin’s efforts to give readers the unfiltered facts they need to hold Texas leaders accountable. Anderson’s original cartoons will be a regular feature on RA News. “Reform Austin readers understand the consequences of electing politicians who use ideological agendas to divide us, when they should be doing the hard work necessary to make our state government work for everyone,” Anderson said. “As a veteran journalist, I’m excited about Reform Austin’s potential to re-focus conversations on the issues that matter to common-sense Texans – like protecting our neighborhoods from increasingly common disasters, healthcare, just to name a few.” Anderson worked for the Houston Chronicle, the largest newspaper in Texas, from 2006 until 2017. In addition to the Pulitzer, Anderson earned the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award. He’s also a two-time winner of Columbia College’s Fischetti Award, and the National Press Foundation’s Berryman Award. Anderson’s cartoons have been published in Newsweek, the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and other papers. In 2005, Anderson won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning while working for the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. The judges complimented his “unusual graphic style that produced extraordinarily thoughtful and powerful messages.”