From the Texas Tribune: Immigration, abortion and economy expected to take center stage when Abbott, O’Rourke debate Friday

The debate already happened - more on that later - but for 2306 classes, I'd like to discuss which issues seem to work better for which gubernatorial candidate.

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Immigration, abortion, the economy and guns are expected to be major topics of conversation Friday night as Republican Gov. Greg Abbott faces off against his Democratic challenger, Beto O’Rourke, in their only planned debate ahead of the Nov. 8 election.

Abbott, who is seeking a third term in office, is leading in the polls by single-digit margins and will look to push his priority issue of border security to the forefront of the debate, along with the country’s struggling economy under the watch of Democratic President Joe Biden.

O’Rourke, who came within 3 percentage points of unseating Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, is expected to attack Abbott’s resistance to gun restrictions after the Uvalde school shooting in May, his record on the state’s electricity grid that led to widespread power outages during last year’s deadly winter freeze and his support of the Legislature’s move to ban nearly all abortions in the state.

“This is a race where a choice between the two candidates could not be more clear,” said Rebecca Deen, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. “If you think about a Venn diagram, I’m not quite sure if there’s any overlap. So you’re just going to see the two folks appealing to the things that they know their voters want to hear.”