CLEBURNE, Texas — Beto O’Rourke on Wednesday said incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is incapable of solving Texas’ lingering problems, including curbing gun violence, fixing the power grid and providing affordable health insurance for all Texans.
“We are running against someone who represents everything that is at odds with what our values are, not as Democrats, but as Texans,” O’Rourke said in Cleburne.
O’Rourke is in the middle of a 49-city tour through Texas to highlight his push for voters to move past Abbott. On Wednesday, he had stops on Cleburne and Mineral Wells, both Republican Party strongholds. If he wants to win in November, the former El Paso congressman and Democratic nominee for governor will have to convince some small town voters to dump Abbott.
Speaking at a non-air conditioned gymnasium in front of hundreds of supporters, O’Rourke said Abbott’s tenure has been defined by one failure after another, calling his two-terms marked by “chaos, cruelty, incompetence and corruption.”
“I don’t know that he wants any of these bad things to happen to us and our fellow Texans, but I do know that he is either unable or unwilling to make the changes necessary to make this state better for every single one of us,” O’Rourke said. “We must win this election so that we can.”
Abbott’s campaign responded with a statement that “the contrast in this race couldn’t be clearer. More Texans are working today than ever before. Governor Abbott is running for re-election to secure the future of Texas through increased job creation and economic opportunity for all Texans; expand energy production to lower gas prices; cut property taxes; secure the border, and keep our communities safe by fully funding Texas law enforcement.”
“In contrast, Beto O’ Rourke supports open borders, defunding the police, raising property taxes, and extreme energy policies that will increase gas prices and kill hundreds of thousands of energy jobs in Texas. Beto will take Texas in the wrong direction,” the statement added.
O’Rourke called on Abbott to call a special session of the Legislature to address mass shootings in Texas and stand up to opponents of gun control by passing effective legislation to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.
He said he supports universal background checks, red flag laws and raising the minimum age for the purchase of an AR-15 assault-style weapon from 18 to 21.
“We’re going to put the lives of our kids before the profits of the gun lobby and the NRA,” he said.
O’Rourke added that as governor, he would improve health care for Texas veterans and preserve reproductive rights for women.
He said he would expand Medicaid to provide greater access to health insurance. And he said he would protect Texans from a repeat of 2021, when a winter storm crippled the state’s power grid.
“The grid is still not fixed,” he said.
O’Rourke urged the crowd to stay positive in what would be a tough fight against Abbott.
“It’s not time to despair,” he said. “Certainly it isn’t time to submit, or to give up … we’ve got to win this one.”
Though there were a couple of hecklers in the crowd who jabbed at O’Rourke over the border, most were receptive to his message.
Dorothy Parker, a retired steel worker who lives in Cleburne, said Texans are ready for change.
“Texas has always been a Republican state, but there are so many things that are going on in Texas that we really need to change,” she said.
Midway through his speech in the hot gym, it began to rain.
“You see today the rain came, right?” Parker said. “It came because Beto’s going to wash Abbott out of Texas.”
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