Beto O’Rourke addresses capacity crowd at TxState

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) began his campaign for the U.S. Senate with support from his wife and the idea of “running with nothing to lose,” he said. “And we’re still running that way.”

O’Rourke held a town hall meeting in the LBJ Student Center Ballroom on Sunday. The room quickly filled to capacity, as did the overflow room and a second overflow room on campus, according to O’Rourke’s representatives and people who posted on Facebook about being turned away. O’Rourke’s staffers gave an initial estimate of between 1,500 and 1,800 people in attendance. The event was live streamed on O’Rourke’s Facebook page and, as of lunchtime Monday, had received 114,000 views.

In a telephone interview after the town hall meeting, O’Rourke said that his campaign has focused on bringing people together. He began his campaign by visiting each of the 254 counties in Texas and meeting with residents there. He said he does not focus on “unimportant” issues like political parties or geography but on what people have to say.

“Really, everywhere we go, people are coming together,” he said. “I chalk this up less to me and to the party and more to just where the state is right now.”

Showing Up

O’Rourke’s popularity has come as something of a surprise, especially since he has refused to accept money from political action committees (PACs). According to the Center for Responsive Politics’ website opensecrets.org, which tracks campaign contributions, O’Rourke and his opponent, incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, are neck-and-neck in fundraising. As of June 30, Cruz’s campaign had reported raising just over $23.3 million and spending $14.5 million, leaving about $9.3 million in Cruz’s war chest. O’Rourke’s campaign had reported raising just over $23.3 million and spending almost $9.8 million, leaving nearly $14 million on hand. 

“I had no idea what to expect,” O’Rourke said of his campaign. “I just knew that more than a year and a half ago — and my wife, who made the decision with me — we just knew we had to do everything we could for this country, given what was going on.”

O’Rourke specifically cited the federal attempts to ban visitors from certain Muslim countries and build a wall along the border with Mexico. 

“There just had to be a better way for this country and a way to bring everyone together,” he said.

Right now, O’Rourke is on another statewide tour, having traveled about 7,000 miles in 34 days to hold town halls and other events in many of the counties he originally visited earlier this year.

O’Rourke said that the county judge in Stonewall County had told him there was no record of any senate candidate from either party ever visiting the county before. In La Grange, he said, it had been more than 30 years since a major candidate had visited, and in other towns across the state it had been more than 70 years since they had received political attention.

“For those of us who live in places that have been overlooked and written off — and I consider those of us in El Paso, my home town, to be in that category — when people show up and listen to us … it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s made us more successful than we otherwise hoped to have been.”

O’Rourke said that of all the issues facing Texas right now, he has heard about healthcare the most on the campaign trail.

“Probably because it’s more fundamental than most,” he said. “If you’re going to finish your education, raise a family, start a business, become an artist … you’ve got to be well enough, healthy enough, to do it. And in a state where millions of people literally don’t have the ability to go to a doctor … a state where it’s really a function of luck and circumstance and fortune versus a human right or something you can count on.”

He emphasized not only the morality of providing health care but also the fiscal benefits of making sure that every Texan gets quality health care. Right now, he said, taxpayers pay for healthcare in emergency rooms and county jails, and people die too early from complications that should not be a problem in the country that invented cures and treatments for so many conditions. 

What Lies Ahead

The senate race has, so far, included some light sparring. The two campaigns have not yet agreed on debate terms. Organizations supporting Cruz have bought airtime for commercials calling O’Rourke corrupt. Cruz has accused O’Rourke of wanting to take away Texans’ guns and to make Texas like California. O’Rourke has called Cruz’s attacks “fear-based.” At one point, a spokesman for Cruz called O’Rourke a “triple meat Whataburger liberal who is out of touch with Texas values.”

“I couldn’t figure out the thinking behind that one,” O’Rourke said. “Whataburger is just so Texas, and it’s very often where we find ourselves at the end of a hard day when we’d visited seven or eight counties. … We’re glad for the association.”

O’Rourke said his focus will remain on traveling the state as election day approaches.

“You will really see us continue to show up in the way that we have. It’s not enough to go to every one of the 254 counties — it’s important to get back to as many of them as we can. And not just to win the election … but to make sure everyone is a part of the conversation about how we deliver the very high standards we set. … It will require all of us coming together, and all of us means all of us.”