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Beto O'Rourke making final push for votes

With the lower-than-expected early vote totals, experts said Beto O'Rourke will need a substantial Election Day turnout.

EL PASO, Texas — Beto O’Rourke was on the campaign trail Monday trying to get as many supporters as possible to the polls.

O’Rourke continues to travel around Texas, and in the home stretch, he’s focusing in on young and college voters and driving up turnout in major metros.

The former West Texas congressman has campaigned on painting Gov. Greg Abbott as incompetent and extreme.

He’s argued Abbott has mismanaged the power grid, mismanaged the border situation and said he has gravitated far to the right.

With the lower-than-expected early vote totals, O'Rourke will need a substantial Election Day turnout.

“He would need a huge number of young voters, college students, African-American voters to go to the polls,” Matthew Wilson said.

Wilson is an SMU political science professor.

“He will also need to hold his own and hold traditional Democratic margins in the Latino vote and that’s something that has been slipping away from Democrats in Texas, to a degree, so he will need to perform very strongly among Hispanic voters," Wilson said.

In trying to move his base of supporters, O'Rourke will be campaigning until polls close.

On Monday, he spent time at Texas A&M and Texas State University.

He will spend Election Day in major metropolitan areas like San Antonio, Dallas and Houston before returning home to El Paso to watch vote returns.

O’Rourke also received the endorsement of former President Barack Obama.

"On issue after issue, Beto O'Rourke will restore commonsense and decency to Texas state government. That's why I'm asking you to vote for Beto, and help build the America we deserve,” Obama said.

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