Austin, Texas - In a gubernatorial race that many expected to be a blowout, Gov. Greg Abbott ended up beating his Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke with 54.8% of the vote, securing a third term as Governor of Texas. Though other Democratic challengers also lost in the Texas midterms, there's still much to be hopeful for.

There was a reason Texas voters were wary about the 2022 midterms, and sadly, the fears many held came true when Abbott was deemed victorious, as were his Texas GOP counterparts in Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Rep. Chip Roy, and embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Unfortunately for those who were hoping the Democratic challengers in all four races would stun the state – and the country – with dark horse wins, that was not the case – and the state remains under Republican control, as it's been for 27 years.

Instead, per the New York Times, Paxton won by a landslide, securing 53.5% of the vote over Democratic challenger Rochelle Garza who got 43.6%. Patrick secured 53.8% of the vote over Democratic challenger Mike Collier, who received 43.4% of the vote, totaling 3,471,627 votes. Chip Roy, who represents Texas' 21st congressional district, secured reelection with 62.9% of the vote over Democratic challenger Claudia Zapata, who managed to get 37.1% of the vote.

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As for the gubernatorial race between Beto and Abbott, the incumbent secured 54.8% of the vote, or 4,427,802 votes, while former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke secured 43.8% of the vote with 3,534,769 votes. Across Texas, it seems that Austin's Travis County rallied up the most support for the former congressman with 73% of voters casting ballots for the El Paso native, as opposed to 54% of Houston's Harris County voters.

A shocking area of support for the incumbent governor came from Uvalde County, the same county where 19 kids and two adults were gunned down in a mass shooting just months ago. Though Abbott failed to do anything in response, the county showed up for him with 60% of voters, or 4,760 people, casting votes in favor of his reelection, while 30% of voters, or 3,031 people, voted for O'Rourke.

The last time Texas had a Democratic governor was in 1990 when Ann Richards was elected.

There have been reports of thousands of mail-in ballots being rejected for not having dates printed on the outside of the envelope, and other reports of polling locations in Harris County that experienced major technological difficulties, leading to a judge ordering that polling places in the county remain open until 8 PM instead of 7 PM.

The Texas Supreme Court then chimed in to overrule the lower court's ruling by directing any votes cast by those who weren't in line by 7 PM be held in a separate ballot box, and further ordered that the ballots not be counted. At least, not for now.

However, it's unlikely that the votes cast on provisional ballots would even be enough for statewide Democratic challengers like O'Rourke, Collier, and Garza to flip their losses to wins.

But for a handful of key races to come closer than expected might be a sign that things in Texas continue to move – albeit slowly – in a progressive direction.