Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke announced Monday that he would challenge Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, a move that gives Texas Democrats a candidate they’ve eagerly sought for months. O’Rourke is unlikely to face any serious opposition in next year’s primary, but he’ll have a very challenging task ahead of him in next year’s general election in a place where Democrats haven’t won a single statewide race since 1994.

O’Rourke, who was elected to the House in 2012 from an El Paso-based seat, emerged on the national spotlight in 2018 when he went up against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in a contest that very few initially thought he could win. The Democrat, though, raised close to $80 million thanks largely to Cruz’s utter radioactivity, as well O’Rourke’s own strong social media campaign, and he held the incumbent to a 51-48 victory during that blue wave year.

O’Rourke’s near-loss, which was the closest Team Blue had come to winning a Texas Senate seat since Democrat Lloyd Bentsen earned his final term back in 1988, only magnified his stardom, but he turned down the chance to challenge Sen. John Cornyn in 2020. Instead, the former congressman launched a bid for the presidency started with solid fundraising and national coverage (though O’Rourke himself would later regret telling the Vanity Fair cover story where he said, “I’m just born to be in it”), but he struggled to maintain his momentum as the campaign continued and dropped out well before the Iowa caucus.

O’Rourke launched his bid for governor Monday by taking Abbott to task for signing the state’s infamous anti-abortion law and for the February power grid failure that resulted in massive blackouts. The former congressman also said of his foe, “He doesn’t trust women to make their health care decisions, doesn’t trust police chiefs when they tell him not to sign the permitless carry bill into law, he doesn’t trust voters, so he changes the rules of our elections, and he doesn’t trust local communities.”

Abbott’s team quickly responded by utilizing a clip from O’Rourke’s presidential bid of him advocating for a mandatory assault weapon buyback program by proclaiming, “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.” O’Rourke two years ago trumpeted that debate line by tweeting, “If it’s a weapon that was designed to kill people on the battlefield, we’re going to buy it back,” while Abbott’s campaign is now trying to caricature him as an enemy of gun rights.

We’ve seen two October polls conducted online by YouGov for different clients, but they very much disagreed on how competitive this race is right now. The Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation and Rice University survey had Abbott edging out O’Rourke just 43-42, while a poll conducted later in the month for the University of Texas at Austin for the Texas Tribune showed the incumbent up 46-37.