Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, campaigned at the Tex-Mex Club in Brownsville and Cine El Rey in McAllen on Aug. 18 as part of his 34-day drive to meet with Texas voters.
O’Rourke, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in the Nov. 6 midterm election, spoke about the importance of voting, the inability of some people to see a doctor, veterans, immigration andDreamers.
In his Brownsville speech, O’Rourke addressed the importance of all parties working together.
“When this country has never been more divided or more polarized, it’s at this moment that … we will lead the way forward for the things that we care about, for the United States of America,” O’Rourke told a crowd of about 200 during his campaign stop in Brownsville.
Comedian and San Juan native Cristela Alonzo came onto the stage in Cine El Rey to introduce O’Rourke and to explain why she supports him. In her speech, she recognized the importance of the Rio Grande Valley in the race and why she came to back to the Valley with O’Rourke.
Asked why she was joining O’Rourke on his campaign, she replied that she felt she needed to follow him.
“I said to him, ‘I will go on the road with you whenever you want because right now it is important,’” Alonzo said, referring to a conversation with O’Rourke. “It is important to make sure that we go out and vote and show up.”
Alonzo said she grew up not knowing much about the voting process and added that the Valley does not stress the importance of it.
“It is not your fault,” she said referring to the young voters of the Valley. “I grew up not being taught how important it is to vote. I grew up where no one would come and visit us.”
Asked what he would say to young voters in the Valley to get them to vote, O’Rourke replied, “Don’t do it if you’re not feeling it. Stay home. If you, however … want to be able to afford higher education and are sick of financing loans at 5 or 6 percent … one way that I know to make it happen is you gotta own your government.”
A native of El Paso, O’Rourke served on the El Paso City Council before winning the race for District 16 U.S. representative in 2012. He serves on the House committees for Armed Services and Veterans Affairs.
O’Rourke, who said young voters are a big part of this election and will be a huge factor in the final vote.
“Young people will make the difference,” he said. “Young people will win this.”
O’Rourke also shared his thoughts about working together with Republicans to achieve a bill to improve access for mental health care for veterans.
“Together, we were able to do something that’s gonna give those veterans who before that bill had absolutely no prospect of going to a VA, seeing a therapist, and being well the ability to do so,” O’Rourke said.
About super political action committee (PAC) groups, O’Rourke said he doesn’t think they should exist and the best thing to end this is to win Texas without PACs or super PACs.
Denisce Palacios, a UTRGV international business and political science major who said she was attending as a citizen and not as the Student Government Association president, spoke about O’Rourke’s effort to meet with Texas voters.
“I think the work that he’s doing and that his team is doing is very important because he’s going person to person and that’s something that we haven’t really seen in the past,” Palacios said.
O’Rourke took time after his speech to speak to attendees and take photographs with them. The next day, the candidate campaigned door-to-door in Brownsville.
Oct. 9 is the deadline to register to vote for the November election.
