O’Rourke brings campaign to Houston
El Paso Democratic Congressman O’Rourke talks about Trump, health care at campaign stop
U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat running for Senate, introduced himself to Houston on Sunday as a potential check on President Donald Trump.
Senate hopeful and U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke introduced himself to Houston on Sunday as a potential check on President Donald Trump, urging voters to send a Democrat to the upper chamber in 2018 rather than waiting to make a dent in deep red Texas.
The El Paso Democrat — best known as an ex-punk rocker who recently lives-streamed a “bipartisan road trip” to Washington, D.C., with Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio — announced his bid Friday to unseat hometown U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
O’Rourke, who has little name recognition across Texas, faces a steep uphill battle in a state that has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994.
His pitch on Sunday focused more on counterbalancing Trump rhetoric and policies than it did ousting Cruz.
“If we want balance — if we want a check on this president — it runs through the Senate,” O’Rourke said, asking hundreds of attendees to picture themselves years from now, trying to answer questions from their children. “‘When you knew what was happening, and you knew what we needed, and you knew what it took, what did you do?’ ”
O’Rourke, 44, is the first to jump into what could be a crowded race.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, also is openly mulling a bid, and U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Dallas, has considered a run at Cruz’s seat.
Cruz, 46, has been a Republican favorite in the Lone Star State since vanquishing establishment favorite and then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst by 14 points in 2012.
The first-term senator carried the state in last year’s Republican presidential primary with 44 percent of the vote to Trump’s 27 percent.
Cruz has shown some vulnerability throughout the last year, however, after some on the right grew dissatisfied with his delayed
embrace of Trump.
O’Rourke, who pledges to refuse contributions from political action committees, appears to have taken a page out of Cruz’s 2012 campaign playbook by announcing his bid early and taking a grass-roots approach.
“I think a people-powered, people-driven, Texas-first campaign is going to make the difference,” O’Rourke said.
He criticized Cruz for helping to shut down the government in 2013 and setting his sights on the White House.
“He shut it down because he put party over country, ideology over the interests of the people he served, and has used Texas for four years as a platform from which to pursue the presidency,” he said to a packed hall at northwest Houston’s IBEW Local Union 716.
O’Rourke named immigration reform, mental health services for veterans, military spending and health care as top campaign issues.
“It’s not a function of what you can afford or what you make or who you happen to work for or where you live or who you were born to,” he said of health care. “It’s a right.”
That message hit home for Tim Delauder, a 49-year-old who lives in Katy.
“The Trump administration and what’s going on in our country is what drove me to become more politically active,” said Delauder, an independent whose politics have been shifting further left. “A lot of people think it’s a losing cause in Texas, but I think the way our demographics are changing in Texas, I think this could be the year ... that we do flip the Senate race.”
Sixth Ward resident Mia Mundy was less inspired by O’Rourke, whom she came out to see because she dislikes Cruz.
“He didn’t blow me away,” said Mundy, 35, whose core political concerns — including LGBTQ rights — differ from the topics O’Rourke discussed.
Mundy still hopes O’Rourke can pull off an upset, though.
“I’m staying because I need (him) to get rid of who I don’t care about,” she said.
Rice University political scientist Mark Jones stressed that O’Rourke’s is a long-shot candidacy.
“What some Democrats are counting on is that the Trump administration will be a complete disaster, and that if the Trump presidency implodes, it’ll have negative repercussions for Republican candidates across the country,” Jones said.
Still, he added, “2018 could be a great time for O’Rourke to make a name for himself across Texas, but also nationwide.”