Former Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke formally kicked off his presidential campaign in his hometown of El Paso over the weekend.
O’Rourke spoke to a raucous crowd downtown, just blocks away from the border with Mexico. He started by praising his hometown, saying El Paso represents America at its best.
“We are safe because we are a city of immigrants and asylum seekers,” O’Rourke said. “We have learned not to fear our differences, but to respect and embrace them.”
His sweeping, 30-minute speech covered a range of topics, from immigration to healthcare to criminal justice. He said the country is facing a moment of truth “and we cannot be found wanting. The challenges before us are the greatest of our lifetimes. An economy that works too well for too few and not at all for too many more. A healthcare system where millions are unable to see a doctor or be well enough to live to their full potential and the last, best hope of averting the catastrophe that will follow climate change, fading before our very inaction.”
O’Rourke called for guaranteed universal healthcare, higher teacher pay, and more support services for veterans. He said he would work to end cash bail, get rid of for-profit prisons. O’Rourke also pledged to ensure that every citizen’s vote truly counts.
“As president, I will sign into law a new Voting Rights Act,” he said. “Together we will end gerrymandering, we will get big money out of our politics, and all across this country, we will have automatic and same-day voter registration.”
Several thousand supporters filled El Paso Street, and cheered as O’Rourke laid out his vision. Many said they were thrilled by the prospect of seeing someone from El Paso in the country’s highest office.
Sixteen-year-old Victoria Fierst attended the rally with her family. “It’s pretty cool to see somebody from this community go somewhere so far,” she said. “I would like to see people change their views on people from border towns. I’d like to see people not think that we’re not violent and terrible people, ‘cause we’re actually really good people.”
El Paso resident Elhiu Dominguez showed up for the rally in a black-and-white Beto 2020 T- shirt. He hoisted his daughter up on his shoulders, for a better view of the podium.
Dominguez says he fully supports his hometown candidate. “I think he can bring a very special view of the border that is very needed nationwide, because most people in the country, they don’t know what’s happening at the border.”
Plus, he says, he has a personal connection to O’Rourke; their daughters go to school together.
The crowd wasn’t limited to local supporters. Teresa Macktal traveled to the rally from Catalina Island, in California, with her mom.
“So we drove about 13 hours of driving,” Macktal says. “Did about six the first day, seven the second day. And then we leave as soon as this is over to head back 13 more hours and then an hour long boat ride.”
All that travel was worth it, she says, too see the first presidential candidate who’s ever really excited her. She likes that O’Rourke is running a positive campaign.
“I’m so sick of hearing what people are against,” Macktal says. “I’m done with that in politics and he’s not about that. He’s about what he’s for.”
Chris Connor also came here from California, along with his wife Nyaisha.
“It’s her birthday weekend and we were looking for somewhere nice to go,” he says. “I had actually volunteered for the Beto Senate campaign doing online work so it just seemed like a perfect match, something we wanted to be part of.
Nyaisha says she wanted to get better-acquainted with O’Rourke’s views. She hasn’t settled on a candidate yet.
“There’s a huge panel of people so I’m still figuring it out but he’s on my top three right now,” she says, along with Kamala Harris and Pete Buttigieg.
“I don’t think anyone should make that decision before a year from now,” says Chris.
O’Rourke is one of more than a dozen candidates vying for the Democratic Party nomination. He says he wants to run a grassroots campaign, free of PAC money. In the first 24 hours after launching his campaign, O’Rourke raised more than $6.1 million. That’s more than any other Democratic candidate who has disclosed figures.
