Greg Abbott had his first campaign stop in North Texas on Saturday at the Fort Worth Zoo

Fort Worth, Texas – Greg Abbott had his first stop in North Texas over the weekend since kicking-off his bid for a third term and he spoke about the problems in the state of Texas.

At the Saturday morning event at the Fort Worth Zoo, Abbott spoke about the problems at the southern border and the immigration crisis, defunding the police and how the state of Texas responded to the pandemic.

In front of 350 supporters in Fort Worth, Abbott said that he and his supporters should fight back against any effort to defund the police. He also said that he will continue to fight the government’s ‘radical agenda’ and promoting their open border policies in an effort to prevent destroying the great state of Texas.

Abbott is currently focused on the general election in November and according to multiple polls in the last couple of months, he seems to have the best rating currently compared to all the other Republican and Democratic candidates.

However, Abbott faces seven other Republican candidates and majority of them will use Abbott’s handling of the pandemic as a main argument in seeking the support from the party.

They include former Texas GOP Chair Allen West, and former State Senator Don Huffines of Dallas who have repeatedly criticized the Governor for not fully reopening the state fast enough.

But Abbott seems confident and he believes that the other GOP candidates won’t gather enough support.

“Well for one, Texas was one of the first states to open fully, 100 percent, and you’ve seen the economic results articulated today. Texas is leading the nation with regard to the job recovery,” Abbott responded to the criticism.

This week, the likely Democratic nominee for Governor, former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke criticized the Governor’s response to the pandemic, claiming that Abbott didn’t provide enough support to the hospitals when they needed additional healthcare workers during the pandemic waves.

O’Rourke added that whenever Abbott provided additional help, the help was processed slow and staff was deployed too late. O’Rourke also has the support of the Mayors of Austin and Brownsville.

“We have responded to every request for additional staffing needs. Right now, Texas has provided more than 5,000 staff for hospitals and we’re going to be adding another one thousand over the coming week or two. There were no unmet needs as it concerned testing equipment,” Abbott responded to O’Rourke criticism.

The candidates will continue to ramp-up their campaigns as the March 1 primary draws closer.