The race for Texas governor is tightening amid an influx of funding for Democrat Beto O'Rourke.
Mark Jones, fellow in political science at Rice University's Baker Institute, still thinks Beto is a distant second to Abbott, but now he's got the cashflow to level the playing field.
"While he's still on the outside looking in and a long shot, he's at least established a fundraising base to make him a very credible candidate."
What started with the 2021 ice storm and power outages, has snowballed into the Uvalde school shooting and abortion.
"All of those facets have made it a tighter race for the governor than you'd normally expect, especially given Joe Biden's unpopularity and the record inflation we're experiencing here in the United States," says Jones.
Unlike 2018, Jones says Texas Republicans are not taking O'Rourke for granted.
"This time around, Beto is not sneaking up on Abbott," he says. "Abbott is aware that he is under challenger and does need to be doing everything possible in running a strong campaign to ensure that Beto doesn't defeat him in November."
That leads to today's poll question.