DALLAS — At a North Dallas event this summer, Dallas executive Timothy Wilson challenged Beto O’Rourke to step up his outreach to Black voters by engaging them in nontraditional campaign venues — their neighborhoods.
“I told him ‘you have my vote, but I do have a community of people who feel left out — Black and brown people,’” said Wilson, senior vice president of a health management company. “We feel left out of the equation, out of the agenda.”
O’Rourke, the Democratic nominee for governor, liked the idea, and joined Wilson and community leaders Friday for a forum at the Black-owned Kutinfed Barbershop in East Dallas. Organizers dubbed it “Shop Talk.”
The former U.S. representative from El Paso followed the Dallas visit with a rally and town hall Saturday in DeSoto.
“We’ve got to go to where people are,” O’Rourke said after the weekend events. “It shows that basic level of respect and courtesy of meeting people literally where they’re at.”
His plan to unseat two-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott hinges on bringing a diverse coalition of voters to the polls for the Nov. 8 election. Though O’Rourke’s effort to woo small-town and rural voters gets a lot of attention, analysts say he can’t win without a strong showing from Black voters, the most reliable cog of the Democratic Party’s base. He’ll also have to do well with Hispanic voters, whom Republicans are trying to lure to their side.
The O’Rourke campaign did not notify the news media about the barbershop event, and it wasn’t listed on his much-publicized 49-day campaign swing through Texas. The Democrat has been weaving in these low-profile campaign stops with larger-scale rallies. The intimate encounters with voters have included meat markets in South Texas, a restaurant mall in Houston and a restaurant in Waxahachie.
Stops at minority-owned barbershops are not new for Republicans or Democrats. In 2018, Republican Ted Cruz, got a hot towel and held a forum at Kingdom Cuts barbershop in East Dallas en route to his Senate victory over O’Rourke.
“When it comes to the Black community, they want to feel like they can touch you,” said state Rep. Jasmine Crockett, the Dallas Democrat who is heavily favored to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in Congress.
Crockett said that O’Rourke scored needed points with Black voters by campaigning at Kutinfed, but that more outreach is necessary.
“We still have to do more to reach more African Americans,” she said. “I’m working very closely with the Beto team and making sure we’re organizing.”
The barbershop owners said they were happy to host O’Rourke and agreed that Black voters should be able to hear from him without having to drive to a neighboring county.
“I really feel like this will be a big plus for him,” said DeShone Williams, co-owner of Kutinfed.
Outreach to voters off the usual trail
Much of O’Rourke’s latest Texas swing has included stops in the Dallas area, including Saturday’s appearance at Disciple Central Community Church in DeSoto, which is also known as DC3.
O’Rourke estimates that at least 400,000 Dallas County residents didn’t participate in the 2020 elections. If Democrats could turn out those votes in this blue county, he would have a better chance against Abbott.
In 2020, Texas Democrats struggled against Republicans in statewide races because the GOP was better at appealing to base voters.
According to an analysis by Texas Democrats after the election, “Black Texans continued to support Democrats overwhelmingly; however, on the margins, Republicans did better at turning out Black Republicans than Democrats did at turning out Black Democrats.”
Hence the need for better outreach from Democratic Party candidates to minority voters.
“If he shows that he’s willing to go wherever he needs to go to be able to connect with people, he’ll get more of us out to vote,” said Wanda Huckaby, a retired school principal from Dallas who attended the barbershop forum.
Others stressed that O’Rourke’s outreach couldn’t be a one-and-done scenario. He needs to keep showing up.
“He talked about those 400,000 nonvoters, many of whom are in DeSoto,” said Marcus King, senior pastor at DC3. “Having events here closer to the election will help. He knows how to speak to anybody, so that won’t be a problem.”
“Black folks have been the backbone of the Democratic Party, and we can’t take that for granted,” said Kardal Coleman, vice chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Party. “They have to be courted, just like your persuasion voters.”
If Friday night’s event is a gauge, O’Rourke and other candidates have work to do to maximize Black voter turnout. Outside the barbershop, organizers had registered only six voters by the end of the event. But O’Rourke’s team also signed up volunteers, which will help him with door-knocking as the campaign hits the stretch run.
Abbott, also mindful of turning out his conservative base, has canvassers contacting voters in Republican strongholds, as well as the Rio Grande Valley.
Dallas activist Dominique Alexander, founder of the Next Generation Action Network, said O’Rourke’s Shop Talk was needed because mining votes from communities of color is the key to beating Abbott.
“I’m not sold on spending too much time trying to get so-called persuadable voters,” he said, pointing to novel strategies he witnessed while helping Georgia Democrats in 2020. “You can be more effective turning out voters here, in our communities.”
Empowering communities of color
O’Rourke has found that many issues facing voters of color involve economic empowerment, better schools, access to quality health care and criminal justice reform.
At the Dallas barbershop and the DeSoto rally, O’Rourke stressed the need for more Black residents to own homes, which they could use to build equity to fund other economic opportunities, including developing businesses.
The Democrat said he would expand Medicaid to combat nagging comorbidities that shorten the lives of minority residents and to ease the maternal mortality crisis that is higher among Black women.
O’Rourke also said he would fight to preserve voting and reproductive rights, as well as stop discrimination against transgender residents.
“We want to make sure that you have an equal shot in the state of Texas,” he said.
“Let’s make sure that we are not found wanting in this moment of truth,” he added. “That’s why we’re here together today.”
Holding O’Rourke accountable
People who attended both events said they would hold O’Rourke to his promises.
“It’s great that he came out into the community vs. us going to him,” said Charles St. Amant, a 55-year-old systems administrator at a school district. “My big thing is, what are you going to do once we get you into office? Are you going to do like most Democrats have done in the past? Once you get in the big house, you ignore us.”
“Most people try to get our votes. But after we vote, we don’t see them anymore,” said Willie “Black” Horn, co-owner of Kutinfed. “So this event was very important. And if he doesn’t do what he said he will do, we will hold him accountable.”
O’Rourke pledged that he would return to their communities as governor.
“When we win this, I’ll be back right here to this very barbershop,” he said. “You hold me accountable. I guarantee it’ll make me a far better governor than I would otherwise be.”
