Rep. Beto O’Rourke
Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas,16th) of El Paso met with Webb County Democrats to ask for support in his 2018 bid for the 34th District seat held by Republican Senator Ted Cruz. Speaking to a February 21 gathering at AmeriK Suites, he said he believes the border is what makes America great.
Unfettered by a Texas political climate that has not elected a Democrat to a U.S. Senate seat since 1993, O’Rourke said his biggest takeaway from the 2016 presidential race was “the premium on authenticity.” He said that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders waged some of the most successful campaigns in terms of voter turnout — both able to tap into voter demographics that have historically been silent.
Both candidates, he said, challenged political norms and traditionally rehearsed personas on the campaign trail.
“Voters know when you are telling them the truth. I am not going to be Beto in El Paso and Billy Bob in Waco or Amarillo,” he said, separating himself from politicians who tailor their message to the audience before them.
O’Rourke believes that a grassroots effort can overpower the political action committees that fund campaigns. Per The Huffington Post, he will not accept PAC money and will instead emulate Sanders’ fundraising approach of donations from the public.
O’Rourke noted El Paso’s similarity to Laredo. “Just last year, there were 32 million legitimate [non-commercial] crossings on the Juarez-El Paso bridge, and the city brought in $90 million in trade — a fraction of what Laredo brings,” O’Rourke noted, “but still a significant 20% of the total U.S.-Mexico volume.”
Laredo is currently the number one inland port for trade and logistics in the United States, and the third-largest port, only after Los Angeles and New York. In spite of Laredo’s superlative numbers in international trade and a low unemployment rate of 4.2%, well below the national average, 32% of Laredo’s population still lives below the federal poverty guideline.
According to O’Rourke, in the event that the Trump administration alters NAFTA significantly, if elected, he would work for a border trade workforce that is unionized.
The 2016 presidential election focused on immigration as a key issue, and the Trump platform voiced disdain for immigrants and people of dark skin. O’Rourke remarked that Trump’s messages and profiling of racial stereotypes resonated with Americans who have been exposed to false realities regarding the everyday immigrant. Border towns, he said, experience the realities of immigration firsthand, and understand its human and economic impacts.
Webb County Democrats at Feb. 21 O’Rourke gathering
O’Rourke shared his experience crossing the Juarez-El Paso bridge with interaction with five different types of immigrants: Armando, a factory manager in Cd. Juarez who is a legal permanent resident of the U.S.; Israel, a Mexican national mechanical engineering student attending UTEP under an F-1 student visa; Vicky, a Mexican national who crosses the bridge to visit her grandchildren and go shopping under a tourist visa; Lisa, a U.S. Citizen who works in Cd. Juarez as a plant manager; and Manuel, a commercial truck driver with a B1/B2 visa who crosses the bridge to transport goods between the two nations.
“When I look at these immigrants, and [hear the rhetoric surrounding immigration], I think ‘what the hell are people so scared of?’” said O’Rourke.
He said the economies and social connectivity of border towns hang in the balance of sweeping Federal changes to immigration policy.
O’Rourke said he has long been an advocate for border towns, and voiced the promise to continue doing so if elected. In October 2016 he delivered a TEDx talk titled “The Border Makes America Great,” in which he spoke of the role that border towns play in the national makeup of the country and what communities must do to change the negative narrative surrounding border cities. He highlighted the border’s explosive trade economy, the contribution to job growth that international trade has at a federal level, and the remarkable safety of border towns.
“We must embrace our story and tell it to everyone we know and the people we will meet throughout this country, so that a different narrative of El Paso, Cd. Juarez, and the US Mexico Border is created. This is a place where nations come together. Where their best ideas meet.”
Thanks to Ms. Gaytan & MEG. I read one of Beto O’Rourke’s columns while visiting Dallas. He is an excellently informative and assertively articulate young man. He definitely has my vote. I wish I’d been notified of his visit to Laredo. Was his Laredo visit covered by TV or Laredo’s “alternative” newspaper ? ~ Chale Valle