Around here, the talk is about Jerry Jones changing Cowboys coaches again and the Rangers blowing millions to upgrade the 2022 team.  Once in a while, people do talk about the elections, and Governor Abbott got more good news today.  This is from The UT-Tyler poll and The Dallas Morning News:

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is running 11 percentage points ahead of Democrat Beto O'Rourke in this year's race for Texas governor, according to a Dallas Morning News-University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday.

Buoyed by 2-to-1 support among whites and a growing number of voters who identify as Republican, Abbott leads O'Rourke in a hypothetical matchup, 47%-36%. He even holds a narrow lead over O'Rourke among Hispanics, 40%-39%.

The poll also said that the "generic ballot" for Congress favors the GOP 54%-44%, and poor President Biden is viewed unfavorably by 57% of Texans.

Maybe we understand now why President Biden won't be campaigning for a lot of Democrats down here.  Beto already said no to having Mr. Biden help him.

Image: Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke, both YouTube screen grabs.

Let me add a couple of thoughts.

I'm not surprised that Mr. O'Rourke is off to a slow start.  This is 2022 and not 2018.  Beto defined himself as a Bernie Sanders liberal in the 2020 primaries and shot himself in the foot with an AR-15.

As for the governor, he is a competent man but does not have the charismatic qualities of former governor Rick Perry.  He is also under attack from the right for not doing more on the border.  Honestly, what else is he supposed to do?  The good news for the governor is that he will survive the primary challenges and start spending all that money painting O'Rourke as a liberal.

So far, so good, if you like the governor, as I do.  The best part of this poll is how the governor is tied with Hispanics.  I guess Democrats are finally starting to realize that there is more to being a Hispanic than talking about immigration reform or DACA.

Let me conclude with a crazy thought.  I would not be surprised if Mr. O'Rourke pulls out of this race before the primary.  He can't afford a double-digit loss in November, and he knows it.

PS: You can listen to my show (Canto Talk).