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Gov. Abbott and Beto O'Rourke go head-to-head in debate for Texas governor

Friday's debate was the first and possibly only debate between the two as we get closer to Election Day.

EDINBURG, Texas — The governor's race is the biggest Texas race coming up in the midterm elections and Friday Gov. Greg Abbott and his opponent Beto O'Rourke faced off in what may be their only debate before Election Day

They covered issues ranging from the border, gun control, abortion, the electric grid and taxes.

The debate was held on the campus of the Univerisity of Texas Rio Grande Valley.

Abbott and O'Rourke tried to separate themselves for voters on every topic. 

Immigration to migrants

Abbott: “Texas has responded by making sure that we have the National guard and DPS deployed where they are making arrest and turning back illegal immigrants.”

O'Rourke: “8 years in to his time as governor and this is what we have on our border. In fact, 4 billion dollars to Operation Lone Star. We’re seeing not fewer but more encounters at our border right now.”

RELATED: Here's how Texas voters feel about abortion, Abbott's border policies

Guns and Uvalde school shooting

Abbott: “We want to end school shootings but we cannot do that by making false promises. It’s a false promise to suggest that we can pass a law that will be upheld by the constitution." 

O’Rourke: “It’s been 18 weeks since their kids have been killed and not a thing has changed in this state to make it any less likely that any other child will meet the same fate.”

RELATED: VERIFY: Fact-checking what was said during the Texas gubernatorial debate

Abortion access in Texas

Abbott stood by signing Texas' restrictive abortion law that doesn't have exceptions for rape or incest. 

O'Rourke said he wants to return abortion back to the standard of Roe v Wade. 

Election Day is Nov. 8. Voters have just a little more than 30 days to decide who will lead Texas for the next four years. 

You can read more responses from Friday's Texas governor debate in the Twitter read below:

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Earlier this week, we broke down the race for governor in our KHOU/Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation Poll.  You can watch that full report below.

Gerald Harris on social media: Facebook | Twitter

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