Did you vote?

This year’s spot for Texas governor was said to be one of the most anticipated elections nationwide with incumbent Governor Greg Abbott running for his third consecutive term against former U.S. Representative for Texas’s 16th congressional district and El Paso native Beto O’Rourke.

Though O’Rourke was leading by about 300,000 votes when early voting numbers rolled in, his almost 10-point lead would soon cease as Abbott would surpass him by almost one million votes and would soon be declared the winner shortly after on the night of Nov.8.

These results made this midterm election a red sweep, with other Republican candidates like Dan Patrick winning re-election as Lieutenant Governor and Ken Paxton winning re-election as Texas Attorney General.

This election had so many lives and important issues on the line yet of the over 17 million registered voters in Texas less than nine million voted.

The lives of women and children, gun reform, abortion are important issues, and yet people did not vote.

After the outcry of women all over America and in Texas when Roe v. Wade was overturned, so many were upset and outraged at the outlaw of abortion and yet people did not vote.

Nineteen children were killed in their classroom days before school was set to end, and people did not vote.

Abbot has shown many times he is not capable of dealing with the issues Texas faces. He fails crisis after crisis. He failed to fix the grid after warnings, and Texans died. He failed to enact gun reform, and children died. He failed to protect a woman’s right to choose, and women are suffering and will die, and yet people didn’t vote.

Educate yourself and think about the direction Texas is heading the next time elections come around.

“It could have been worse,” Abbott said of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. That is the Texas we still live in.