CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott and challenger Beto O'Rourke came together for the first, and probably only, Texas gubernatorial debate Friday in the Rio Grande Valley.
Several Twitter users claimed one candidate had been given more time to answer questions than the other, but after re-listening to the debate and logging talk time, 3NEWS realized the time they did get was split pretty evenly.
We broke down the debate by numbers: The entire special lasted 57 minutes, and, of those, each candidate ended up getting about 17 minutes to answer questions. More specifically: Abbott had 17.8 minutes of speaking time and O'Rourke spoke for 17.3 minutes. However, the nine instances in which O'Rourke spoke out of turn accounted for some of those minutes.
Whereas moderators granted Abbott eight rebuttals, and O'Rourke received four.
Candidates spent 35 minutes answering questions, while the other 22 minutes were spent by moderators asking questions or going over instructions.
The topic that the most time was spent on? Gun control. Abbott spoke for a total of 4.2 minutes on gun control. O'Rourke spent 3.8 minutes on the topic.
“Texas Decides,” a joint effort between the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation (THPF) and Tegna Texas stations WFAA, KHOU, KENS and KVUE, found that Abbott leads O’Rourke by 7 percent (51 percent to 44 percent) among likely voters.
The 22 minute minutes given to the moderators was one of the most surprising stats to the 3NEWS newsroom. At times, questions included video in addition to a moderator's lengthy question.
It seems other people noticed, too.
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