When Beto O’Rourke ran for U.S. Senate against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz four years ago, he generated fawning national headlines, comparisons to JFK, and the adoration of Texas Democrats who saw him as the potential savior their party desperately needed.
After two failed election campaigns, including the hard-fought Senate contest and an aborted run for president in 2020, O’Rourke’s once-shining star has noticeably dimmed, though the former three-term congressman from El Paso remains highly popular among state Democrats. A University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll last week showed overwhelming Democratic support for O’Rourke in this primary, with 93% of verified primary voters backing him over former journalist Joy Diaz, auto executive Michael Cooper, former public utility consultant Rich Wakeland and Inocencio “Inno” Barrientez.
O’Rourke’s platform addresses core Democratic values — reducing obstacles to voting, expanding Medicaid and high-paying union jobs, improving health care and housing for veterans, and enforcing pollution laws, for example. This should appeal to Texans who feel they’ve been left behind by Gov. Greg Abbott’s more divisive, highly partisan policies. While some might question the strength of the Democratic field in the governor’s race, O’Rourke is the best-positioned candidate and we recommend Democrats vote for him in the March 1 primary.
O’Rourke has also called for legalizing marijuana and expunging marijuana convictions, and strengthening Texas’ position as a national leader in clean energy.
But you might not know this from O’Rourke’s rather one-dimensional campaign and his fierce criticism of Abbott’s inept response to Winter Storm Uri, which left at least 246 Texans dead and much of the state without power and water for days and, in some cases, weeks.
O’Rourke is right to question Abbott’s role in the state’s failure to protect its power grid — it’s a stain on the governor’s record. But while questions persist about the grid’s reliability, Texas dodged another electricity blackout during a freeze last month. O’Rourke should expand his message or risk being perceived as a one-note candidate.
And then there’s the gun issue. After a madman massacred 23 people and injured 23 others in El Paso in 2019, a distraught O’Rourke pleaded for more restrictive gun laws, and declared: “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”
Plenty of Texans appreciated the pledge. But others, including independents whose support O’Rourke needs, heard it as a threat to their Second Amendment rights.
A firearm owner himself, O’Rourke has since tried to soften his rhetoric, insisting that he doesn’t support banning guns, but would try to restrict access to people with a record of violence or mental illness. Still, O’Rourke owes all Texans a more detailed outline of his plan to restrict AR-15s and AK-47s.
O’Rourke might not have the same mass appeal he once did, but he remains a galvanizing figure in Democratic politics. Democrats should put him on the ballot for governor in November.
Austin American-Statesman
