[Mike Ward is on special assignment, traveling to Washington this week so Scott tackled the podcast duties solo today.]

It’s official: Governor Greg Abbott announced his re-election campaign just after 3 p.m. today in San Antonio, where he also announced his first gubernatorial campaign exactly four years ago. As of yet, Abbott is facing no serious gubernatorial opponents, so he turned to George Soros and Nancy Pelosi to rile up the crowd against “far left liberals.”

While he was scaring the base of the GOP with that, we also took a look at what average Texans are saying now that Gov. Abbott is once again running for the state's top elected position.

With less than a week to go before the start of the special session, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick shifted his focus to address Speaker Joe Straus’ top priority: Public education. As has been the case all year, they do not see eye to eye on a path forward. The speaker, however, welcomed Patrick to the debate he’s been asking for all along. In response, Straus said, “It’s encouraging to see the Lieutenant Governor’s newfound focus on school finance reform."

Also, Beto O'Rourke, the El Paso congressman taking on Sen. Ted Cruz for his seat next year was able to out-raise Cruz for this reporting period. O'Rourke's campaign announced it had raised $2.1 million in April, May, and June to Cruz's $1.6 million. Cruz has 5.7 million cash on hand to O'Rourke's $1.9 million. 

As always, we've got the lowdown on all the political meltdowns on the Texas Take, where you get the inside scoop in unvarnished, straight talk that every Texan can understand. From Mike Ward, the Chronicle's Austin Bureau chief, and Scott Braddock, editor of the Quorum Report, comes Texas' leading podcast about Lone Star politics.