Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and challenger Beto O’Rourke (D) met Friday night at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in their only scheduled televised debate.
The candidates sparred over topics like the border, immigration, abortion access, school safety and education. You can watch the full debate replay in the video above.
Nexstar Media adopted a set of criteria to determine which candidates were eligible to participate in a debate, which included a requirement that a candidate must receive at least 10% support in an established, professionally-conducted, non-partisan poll leading up to the election. A candidate also must have raised at least $50,000 in campaign contributions to be eligible.
Watch undecided voters’ reactions
As part of debate night, Nexstar Media hosted a panel of voters who watched the debate and reacted to the evening’s events live. This helped give an indication for how Texans were responding to the comments made by the candidates. You can watch the panel debate replay in the video below:
Spanish-language version
Nexstar también tuvo disponible el debate gubernatorial en español a través de la traducción en vivo. Si desea ver esa versión del debate, se encuentra publicada en el reproductor de video a continuación:
Debate channel participants
In addition to the Texas stations listed below, the debate aired on Nexstar’s cable news network, NewsNation.
| Station | Network | Market |
| KXAN-TV | NBC | Austin, TX |
| KWKT-TV | FOX | Waco, TX |
| KTSM-TV | NBC | El Paso, TX |
| KETK-TV | NBC | Tyler, TX |
| KAMR-TV | NBC | Amarillo, TX |
| KMID-TV | ABC | Midland, TX |
| KLBK-TV | CBS | Lubbock, TX |
| KTAB-TV | CBS | Abilene, TX |
| KLST-TV | CBS | San Angelo, TX |
| KVEO-TV | NBC | Harlingen, TX |
| KIAH-TV | CW | Houston, TX |
| KDAF-TV | CW | Dallas,TX Ft. Worth, TX |
| KTAL-TV | NBC | Texarkana, TX |
| KFDX-TV | NBC | Wichita Falls, TX |
| KSAT-TV | ABC | San Antonio, TX |
The election for Texas Governor will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022. Voters must register to vote by Tuesday, Oct. 11. To register to vote, please click here.
