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The Beto Effect - How To Lose Elections and Influence Nothing

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Makes me proud to be a Texas Democrat. 

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NorthLoop

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6 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

 

this sociopath has gone on a spree of sending  cease-and-desist letters to those he sees deserving. don't think he gives one ounce of 'fuck' about a woman's right to privacy 

Didn't he also get outed as gay by many of his former HS classmates?  NTTAWWT ----- unless you're a hate mongering Republican Trumper. 

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13,391

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I’m hopeful but skeptical of Beto winning. Sure he gets enthusiastic crowds but is the actual support growing? 

Unfortunately I predict Beto will outperform the recent polls on Election Day but falls shorts by 3%. There will then be the inevitable dem crowd looking to the Valley throwing their hands up at the low turnout.

Beto needs attack ads that convince people to not vote for Abbott. 

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Fudge Nuggets

Fudge Nuggets 19,118

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15 hours ago, fattyflattie said:

Yep, the pubs fucked up with the RvW bullshit and the non-evangelicals among us are going to be fucked, probably for a decade plus.  

At least you can keep your pew pew pew toys.  And hey, keep voting for the fuckers and maybe you’ll finally get your wet dream of no poor kids allowed in school.

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troph

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31 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

I’m hopeful but skeptical of Beto winning. Sure he gets enthusiastic crowds but is the actual support growing? 

Unfortunately I predict Beto will outperform the recent polls on Election Day but falls shorts by 3%. There will then be the inevitable dem crowd looking to the Valley throwing their hands up at the low turnout.

Beto needs attack ads that convince people to not vote for Abbott. 

 

20 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

He has one coming down the pipeline.  Haven't seen it yet though.

He’s always been against attack ads. But they suppress turnout of your opponent and increase turnout of your supporters. There’s a reason why everyone who is successful does it. There’s a reason why plenty of qualified people won’t run - because they don’t want to have to play dirty. But to run and try to be different in a way that puts you at a disadvantage in a nearly lawless ring is absurd. The man needs to attack Abbott because Abbott deserves the attack. 

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Guest

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Anyone go to see him in Pflugerville last night? I went despite the rain. Decent turnout.

Honestly, it was ok. He did 10-15 minutes of his greatest hits and then took photos with people. The camera really cuts the intensity and enthusiasm of him speaking. In person, he came across as much more amped up. 


 

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Pato del Muerto

Pato del Muerto 52,321

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52 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Anyone go to see him in Pflugerville last night? I went despite the rain. Decent turnout.

Honestly, it was ok. He did 10-15 minutes of his greatest hits and then took photos with people. The camera really cuts the intensity and enthusiasm of him speaking. In person, he came across as much more amped up. 


 

I got texted a pic of him holding my neighbor’s autistic granddaughter.  Was a nice picture. 

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SydneyCarton

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19 hours ago, chainsaw said:

Corpus is not growing faster than CenTex. Williamson is never going red again, and neither is Sugar Land.

I mean sugar land literally just fucking elected this stupid meathead:

https://www.congress.gov/member/district/troy-nehls/N000026

Not sure where the fuck your certainty is coming from on his one, guy. Did you mean to say Blue? Because look at that gerrymandered fuckjob that sneaks sugarland right in there with rural fucking texas. 

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fattyflattie

fattyflattie 4,636

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16 minutes ago, SydneyCarton said:

Not sure where the fuck your certainty is coming from on his one, guy. Did you mean to say Blue? Because look at that gerrymandered fuckjob that sneaks sugarland right in there with rural fucking texas. 

That’s what I was wondering. It’s split pretty down the middle in Fort Bend from what I’ve seen, with some extremely red pockets.  And while I don’t know a ton of them, the few Indian guys I work with from that area are all conservative af. Not Trumpy, but voted R. 

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Voldemort86

Voldemort86 2,259

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Attack ads against hot wheels literally write themselves.  Just blame hot wheels for 100’s of Texans dying during the ice storm while skyscrapers in Texas cities were lit up like Christmas trees. Blame him for appointing people who didn’t know how to manage the electric grid. Blame him for the lack of any action on gun reform. Blame him for the sick law we have on abortion.

Hit harm hard, often, and don’t let up until after Election Day.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53,964

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5 minutes ago, Voldemort86 said:

Attack ads against hot wheels literally write themselves.  Just blame hot wheels for 100’s of Texans dying during the ice storm while skyscrapers in Texas cities were lit up like Christmas trees. Blame him for appointing people who didn’t know how to manage the electric grid. Blame him for the lack of any action on gun reform. Blame him for the sick law we have on abortion.

Hit harm hard, often, and don’t let up until after Election Day.

I don't understand how it's considered to be an "attack ad" when you're just discussing his record.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53,964

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55 minutes ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Does our state code honestly say that a communist can't hold office? That seems like something that would easily be struck down.

My only regret in that exchange is that Beto didn't ask the guy to explain what a communist is.

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Longhorn_Fan68

Longhorn_Fan68 33,825

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1 minute ago, Post Oak said:

Abbott can't keep the power on and your kids from being murdered in schools.  

And can't manage the border crisis. And is making your raped preteen daughter carry her baby to term. And is killing grandma because he won't expand Medicaid. I mean, the list fucking goes on.

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Beau Vine

Beau Vine 53,964

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10 minutes ago, Poe It Up said:

Oh, just having some fun with Beau Vine. I didn’t realize the guy has over 20,000 posts, now I feel kinda bad. 

I feel bad that you're a stupid fucking idiot who ghost-negs people to start a rep war with a guy with 28K rep points.  

Would you like me to let up now, because I really have very little work I have to get done today?

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Beantown Express 2.0

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2 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

And can't manage the border crisis. And is making your raped preteen daughter carry her baby to term. And is killing grandma because he won't expand Medicaid. I mean, the list fucking goes on.

No matter how much of that people hear all it takes is “Beto will make Texas socialist” and the dip shits in this state will pull the R lever.   Beto’s only chance is if tons of Republican women vote for Beto on the abortion issue.  That is what he should be hammering Abbott on over and over again. “Abbott is letting your kids get slaughtered in school” may also help get that suburb Republican mom to pull the lever for Beto.    

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troph

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bigots, haters, Q-supporters, advocates of Trump's fictitious election fraud narrative, those who make excuses or down play Jan 6th, and those who don't believe OU sucks should all be negged to purgatory if not outright IP permabanned.

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South Austin

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33 minutes ago, troph said:

bigots, haters, Q-supporters, advocates of Trump's fictitious election fraud narrative, those who make excuses or down play Jan 6th, and those who don't believe OU sucks should all be negged to purgatory if not outright IP permabanned.

And Methodists!!!

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bolverk

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tl;dr: Piece about Beto on his small town Texas tour and being met by gun nuts -- Nothing really new or adding deep analysis but gonna post anyway in case any of you are interested.

BUT, as I was reading it and thinking about my own upbringing in a small, conservative West Texas town, I don't think he's really wasting his time out there in the sticks right now. For those who are progressive/liberal/Democratic and living in towns like these, the overwhelming conservative political environment that surrounds you day in and day is stultifying and depressing which, in and of itself, probably lowers their already meager turnout.

As we've discussed ad nauseum, Beto needs strong turnout in the urban centers and has to flip a couple of more suburban counties, but giving a little hope for small town Dems doesn't hurt and probably makes them feel less socially isolated or even shunned. I mean, check out the hostility coming from people yelling, not at him, but at his supporters (their own neighbors).

 

In Deep Red Texas, Beto O’Rourke Takes on Guns and Abortion
“I can’t win this with Democrats alone,” Mr. O’Rourke said during a 49-day drive across Texas that has included deeply Republican towns.

WHITESBORO, Texas — As supporters of Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, emerged from a crowded campaign event in a quaint, conservative bastion north of Dallas, Treva Sanges was there to protest them.

“Murderers!” she called out.

Most walked by her, but Abbi Gregory and a friend, who support abortion rights, stopped and engaged Ms. Sanges in a lengthy debate in the late evening sun. The women quickly realized that while they were political opponents, they were also once neighbors.

“I actually have a few of her art pieces hanging in my house,” Ms. Gregory, 22, said. “And I love her to pieces,” added Ms. Sanges, 58. The women eventually found a thin reed of agreement: abortion bans should allow exceptions for child rape, which Texas law does not provide.

“If a 10-year-old gets raped, by all means, you know, go and get it taken care of,” Ms. Sanges said.

Spoiler

Locked in a race against Gov. Greg Abbott that has grown unexpectedly close, Mr. O’Rourke has been venturing into deeply conservative corners of rural Texas, sparking confrontations and conversations between Democrats and Republicans who may rarely speak with each other about politics, even if they cross paths every day in the local grocery store or at church.

“This is refreshing to see people like me — there’s probably five Democrats in the county,” said John Wade, 73, a retired Methodist elder who came to see Mr. O’Rourke in Bowie, Texas, where nearly 90 percent of voters chose Donald J. Trump in 2020.

At five recent town hall-style gatherings across the deep red rural northeast of Texas, Mr. O’Rourke invited protesters inside for a break from the oppressive heat, answered questions from supporters of Mr. Abbott and took pains to direct his attacks against the governor, not Republicans in general.

Mr. O’Rourke sees such efforts as critically important to his uphill campaign to retake the governor’s mansion for Democrats for the first time since Ann Richards mounted an improbable, come-from-behind victory in 1990.

“I can’t win this with Democrats alone,” Mr. O’Rourke said in an interview after an event in Texarkana, along the Arkansas border. “I hope that that gives more Republicans a greater opportunity to be part of this, without feeling like they are responsible for what Greg Abbott is doing now, because they’re not.”

A former El Paso congressman who made his name with a brash challenge and narrow loss to Senator Ted Cruz in 2018, Mr. O’Rourke has sought to avoid the mistakes of that race, in which his voter turnout efforts also helped Mr. Cruz, and his campaign eschewed big-money supporters. This time, he has taken a few $1 million donations, including from the billionaire George Soros.

“I’m raising the money I need to win this race,” Mr. O’Rourke said.

For years, Democrats have forecast a political shift in Texas, based on the state’s growing and more liberal urban centers. Mr. O’Rourke’s run is the latest attempt to test that prediction, which has yet to come true.

What has changed this time, for him and the state, has been the resurgence of emotional debates over guns and abortion. Those hot-button issues are more relevant than ever in Texas, with a school shooting in Uvalde in May and a clampdown on abortion made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the issue in June. They have invigorated Mr. O’Rourke’s longtime supporters and provided an opening for him to move into conservative strongholds around Texas — like the rural counties north of Dallas — and present his positions as moderate compared with those of Mr. Abbott and other Republican leaders.

While Mr. O’Rourke is hoping to find more votes, he is still likely to lose in these corners of the state by large margins.

“I had my picture with him — if I was running again, I’d lose my campaign,” said L.D. Williamson, 85, the top executive in Red River County who first won office as a Democrat before switching to the Republican Party, joining most of the county’s roughly 12,000 residents. (Mr. Trump won the county 78 percent to 22 percent.)

Mr. O’Rourke packed a restaurant on the main square in Clarksville. In his remarks, he outlined a moderated position on guns from some he had taken in the past — expanded background checks, raising the age to 21 from 18 to buy an AR-15-style rifle and a “red flag” law to take firearms from those deemed a risk.

“You don’t need an AR-15 to defend yourself and your home,” he said. But, he added, “I’m not here to stand on principle. I’m not here to tell you only what my ideal is. I’m here to get something done.”

Still, Mr. O’Rourke has exhibited some raw feelings on the issue: While speaking in Mineral Wells, Texas, he lashed out after a man in a group holding Abbott campaign signs was heard laughing as Mr. O’Rourke spoke about the killing of school children in Uvalde.

“It may be funny to you,” he said, lashing out with an expletive, “but it’s not funny to me.” His supporters cheered. A video of the encounter has been viewed nearly five million times.

Even before that exchange, the Abbott campaign had grown concerned that the presence of the governor’s supporters at Mr. O’Rourke’s events could backfire. An email from an Abbott campaign worker, described by The Texas Tribune, cautioned them not to go into Mr. O’Rourke’s events or talk to him, not because of fears of confrontations, but because of concerns that it could appear in photos as if they had been converted.

Dave Carney, a top campaign strategist for Mr. Abbott, stressed that the campaign welcomed Mr. O’Rourke’s frequent speeches, in which the campaign says he can be seen waffling or pandering to voters of different stripes on gun control, the oil industry and police funding. “He looks at his phone, at what area code he’s in, and he tries to appeal,” Mr. Carney said. “L.B.J. could get away with that, but it doesn’t work today.”

Mr. Abbott agreed this month to a debate, something Mr. Carney had said would happen only if the race were close. Several recent polls have put Mr. O’Rourke around five percentage points behind the governor.

At each of the five campaign stops, Mr. O’Rourke stressed broadly popular positions: expanding Medicaid, canceling statewide school assessment tests, cutting property taxes, legalizing marijuana.

He was repeatedly asked about one past position, taken during the 2020 presidential primary: a vow, after a deadly mass shooting in El Paso, to “take your AR-15.” The issue has been front of mind for his supporters — who have resurrected the issue since the shooting in Uvalde — and for those who have shown up to protest him, openly bearing arms.

The politics of abortion have also appeared to energize Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign. A clear majority of his crowds were women, and the loudest cheers came whenever he discussed his support for abortion rights.

“The reason I came is because he was a premature baby, and I am now considered a high-risk pregnancy,” said Azucena Salinas, 20, a pregnant substitute teacher who stood at the back of Mr. O’Rourke’s event in Pittsburg with her 8-month-old son, Malakai. “I want to have the choice and the right for the doctors to be able to give me an abortion when my life is in danger.”

Apart from courting conservatives, Mr. O’Rourke’s strategy is focused on turning out new voters, recruiting an army of volunteers — his campaign already claims 80,000 — and campaigning across the state. He is currently in the middle of a 49-day drive across Texas that ends next month.

Mr. Carney said Mr. Abbott had also been reaching across party lines to disaffected Democrats, particularly those Hispanic voters who have drifted toward the Republican Party.

At his stop in Whitesboro, Mr. O’Rourke drew hundreds of supporters to a renovated church near a downtown gun store. He also attracted scores of protesters, many with handguns on their hips. One man carried an AR-15-style rifle, and another had a flag depicting the weapon in place of a cannon over the famous slogan from the Texas revolution: “Come and Take It.”

“The race is really, really close,” said Rod Parker, a revivalist preacher with a .40-caliber handgun on his hip who helped organize the protest. If Mr. O’Rourke wins, he said, Texas would “end up being like a California or an Oregon or a Chicago, and we’re not putting up with that garbage in this town.”

Inside the campaign event, Amy Maxey, 46, said she was happy to see the crowd of mostly fellow Democrats gathered there, but she also bemoaned the anger that Mr. O’Rourke’s visit had brought to the surface. She said that as she entered, a protester had told her she was not a Christian because of her support for Mr. O’Rourke.

“Our kids grew up in this town together,” she said. “I’m definitely a Christian. I go to church here.”

After the event, tensions grew. Mr. Parker and a large group waited outside for Mr. O’Rourke to emerge. Some taunted his supporters.

“Baby killers!” they shouted. “Pedophiles!”

Inside, Mr. O’Rourke posed for photos and talked to anyone who wanted to ask a question or share their story, including Trey Ramsey, a former police officer who said he backed Mr. Trump in 2016 and Mr. Abbott in 2018 but had become disillusioned with the Republican Party. His wife is volunteering for Mr. O’Rourke.

Eventually, Mr. Parker grew impatient with waiting outside and, along with several armed supporters, entered the church. Some shouted at Mr. O’Rourke. As they filled the center aisle, a few dozen feet from Mr. O’Rourke, the town’s police chief urged them to “keep cool,” but people were ruffled nonetheless.

“It was a real kind of a shock,” Mr. Ramsey said. “As a former law enforcement officer, my hairs immediately stood up.”

Mr. O’Rourke agreed to speak with Mr. Parker. They shook hands and, for five minutes, engaged in a discussion of guns.

“I bet that we can agree on something like a universal background check,” Mr. O’Rourke said. “We might be able to agree on a red-flag law.”

“No, sir!” shouted a man who had entered with Mr. Parker.

“The reason for the people to have the Second Amendment, OK, was for — so that we could protect ourselves from big government,” Mr. Parker said.

“You think your right to have a gun is so that you can use it against your government?” Mr. O’Rourke responded.

“Not necessarily,” Mr. Parker said. Before walking away, he told Mr. O’Rourke that he was “not welcome in this town.”

“Hey, there were a lot of people who just welcomed us to this town,” Mr. O’Rourke responded. “And we’ll be back, again and again.”

 

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chainsaw

chainsaw 9,831

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2 minutes ago, bolverk said:

tl;dr: Piece about Beto on his small town Texas tour and being met by gun nuts -- Nothing really new or adding deep analysis but gonna post anyway in case any of you are interested.

BUT, as I was reading it and thinking about my own upbringing in a small, conservative West Texas town, I don't think he's really wasting his time out there in the sticks right now. For those who are progressive/liberal/Democratic and living in towns like these, the overwhelming conservative political environment that surrounds you day in and day is stultifying and depressing which, in and of itself, probably lowers their already meager turnout.

As we've discussed ad nauseum, Beto needs strong turnout in the urban centers and has to flip a couple of more suburban counties, but giving a little hope for small town Dems doesn't hurt and probably makes them feel less socially isolated or even shunned. I mean, check out the hostility coming from people yelling, not at him, but at his supporters (their own neighbors).

 

In Deep Red Texas, Beto O’Rourke Takes on Guns and Abortion
“I can’t win this with Democrats alone,” Mr. O’Rourke said during a 49-day drive across Texas that has included deeply Republican towns.

WHITESBORO, Texas — As supporters of Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Texas governor, emerged from a crowded campaign event in a quaint, conservative bastion north of Dallas, Treva Sanges was there to protest them.

“Murderers!” she called out.

Most walked by her, but Abbi Gregory and a friend, who support abortion rights, stopped and engaged Ms. Sanges in a lengthy debate in the late evening sun. The women quickly realized that while they were political opponents, they were also once neighbors.

“I actually have a few of her art pieces hanging in my house,” Ms. Gregory, 22, said. “And I love her to pieces,” added Ms. Sanges, 58. The women eventually found a thin reed of agreement: abortion bans should allow exceptions for child rape, which Texas law does not provide.

“If a 10-year-old gets raped, by all means, you know, go and get it taken care of,” Ms. Sanges said.

  Reveal hidden contents

Locked in a race against Gov. Greg Abbott that has grown unexpectedly close, Mr. O’Rourke has been venturing into deeply conservative corners of rural Texas, sparking confrontations and conversations between Democrats and Republicans who may rarely speak with each other about politics, even if they cross paths every day in the local grocery store or at church.

“This is refreshing to see people like me — there’s probably five Democrats in the county,” said John Wade, 73, a retired Methodist elder who came to see Mr. O’Rourke in Bowie, Texas, where nearly 90 percent of voters chose Donald J. Trump in 2020.

At five recent town hall-style gatherings across the deep red rural northeast of Texas, Mr. O’Rourke invited protesters inside for a break from the oppressive heat, answered questions from supporters of Mr. Abbott and took pains to direct his attacks against the governor, not Republicans in general.

Mr. O’Rourke sees such efforts as critically important to his uphill campaign to retake the governor’s mansion for Democrats for the first time since Ann Richards mounted an improbable, come-from-behind victory in 1990.

“I can’t win this with Democrats alone,” Mr. O’Rourke said in an interview after an event in Texarkana, along the Arkansas border. “I hope that that gives more Republicans a greater opportunity to be part of this, without feeling like they are responsible for what Greg Abbott is doing now, because they’re not.”

A former El Paso congressman who made his name with a brash challenge and narrow loss to Senator Ted Cruz in 2018, Mr. O’Rourke has sought to avoid the mistakes of that race, in which his voter turnout efforts also helped Mr. Cruz, and his campaign eschewed big-money supporters. This time, he has taken a few $1 million donations, including from the billionaire George Soros.

“I’m raising the money I need to win this race,” Mr. O’Rourke said.

For years, Democrats have forecast a political shift in Texas, based on the state’s growing and more liberal urban centers. Mr. O’Rourke’s run is the latest attempt to test that prediction, which has yet to come true.

What has changed this time, for him and the state, has been the resurgence of emotional debates over guns and abortion. Those hot-button issues are more relevant than ever in Texas, with a school shooting in Uvalde in May and a clampdown on abortion made possible by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on the issue in June. They have invigorated Mr. O’Rourke’s longtime supporters and provided an opening for him to move into conservative strongholds around Texas — like the rural counties north of Dallas — and present his positions as moderate compared with those of Mr. Abbott and other Republican leaders.

While Mr. O’Rourke is hoping to find more votes, he is still likely to lose in these corners of the state by large margins.

“I had my picture with him — if I was running again, I’d lose my campaign,” said L.D. Williamson, 85, the top executive in Red River County who first won office as a Democrat before switching to the Republican Party, joining most of the county’s roughly 12,000 residents. (Mr. Trump won the county 78 percent to 22 percent.)

Mr. O’Rourke packed a restaurant on the main square in Clarksville. In his remarks, he outlined a moderated position on guns from some he had taken in the past — expanded background checks, raising the age to 21 from 18 to buy an AR-15-style rifle and a “red flag” law to take firearms from those deemed a risk.

“You don’t need an AR-15 to defend yourself and your home,” he said. But, he added, “I’m not here to stand on principle. I’m not here to tell you only what my ideal is. I’m here to get something done.”

Still, Mr. O’Rourke has exhibited some raw feelings on the issue: While speaking in Mineral Wells, Texas, he lashed out after a man in a group holding Abbott campaign signs was heard laughing as Mr. O’Rourke spoke about the killing of school children in Uvalde.

“It may be funny to you,” he said, lashing out with an expletive, “but it’s not funny to me.” His supporters cheered. A video of the encounter has been viewed nearly five million times.

Even before that exchange, the Abbott campaign had grown concerned that the presence of the governor’s supporters at Mr. O’Rourke’s events could backfire. An email from an Abbott campaign worker, described by The Texas Tribune, cautioned them not to go into Mr. O’Rourke’s events or talk to him, not because of fears of confrontations, but because of concerns that it could appear in photos as if they had been converted.

Dave Carney, a top campaign strategist for Mr. Abbott, stressed that the campaign welcomed Mr. O’Rourke’s frequent speeches, in which the campaign says he can be seen waffling or pandering to voters of different stripes on gun control, the oil industry and police funding. “He looks at his phone, at what area code he’s in, and he tries to appeal,” Mr. Carney said. “L.B.J. could get away with that, but it doesn’t work today.”

Mr. Abbott agreed this month to a debate, something Mr. Carney had said would happen only if the race were close. Several recent polls have put Mr. O’Rourke around five percentage points behind the governor.

At each of the five campaign stops, Mr. O’Rourke stressed broadly popular positions: expanding Medicaid, canceling statewide school assessment tests, cutting property taxes, legalizing marijuana.

He was repeatedly asked about one past position, taken during the 2020 presidential primary: a vow, after a deadly mass shooting in El Paso, to “take your AR-15.” The issue has been front of mind for his supporters — who have resurrected the issue since the shooting in Uvalde — and for those who have shown up to protest him, openly bearing arms.

The politics of abortion have also appeared to energize Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign. A clear majority of his crowds were women, and the loudest cheers came whenever he discussed his support for abortion rights.

“The reason I came is because he was a premature baby, and I am now considered a high-risk pregnancy,” said Azucena Salinas, 20, a pregnant substitute teacher who stood at the back of Mr. O’Rourke’s event in Pittsburg with her 8-month-old son, Malakai. “I want to have the choice and the right for the doctors to be able to give me an abortion when my life is in danger.”

Apart from courting conservatives, Mr. O’Rourke’s strategy is focused on turning out new voters, recruiting an army of volunteers — his campaign already claims 80,000 — and campaigning across the state. He is currently in the middle of a 49-day drive across Texas that ends next month.

Mr. Carney said Mr. Abbott had also been reaching across party lines to disaffected Democrats, particularly those Hispanic voters who have drifted toward the Republican Party.

At his stop in Whitesboro, Mr. O’Rourke drew hundreds of supporters to a renovated church near a downtown gun store. He also attracted scores of protesters, many with handguns on their hips. One man carried an AR-15-style rifle, and another had a flag depicting the weapon in place of a cannon over the famous slogan from the Texas revolution: “Come and Take It.”

“The race is really, really close,” said Rod Parker, a revivalist preacher with a .40-caliber handgun on his hip who helped organize the protest. If Mr. O’Rourke wins, he said, Texas would “end up being like a California or an Oregon or a Chicago, and we’re not putting up with that garbage in this town.”

Inside the campaign event, Amy Maxey, 46, said she was happy to see the crowd of mostly fellow Democrats gathered there, but she also bemoaned the anger that Mr. O’Rourke’s visit had brought to the surface. She said that as she entered, a protester had told her she was not a Christian because of her support for Mr. O’Rourke.

“Our kids grew up in this town together,” she said. “I’m definitely a Christian. I go to church here.”

After the event, tensions grew. Mr. Parker and a large group waited outside for Mr. O’Rourke to emerge. Some taunted his supporters.

“Baby killers!” they shouted. “Pedophiles!”

Inside, Mr. O’Rourke posed for photos and talked to anyone who wanted to ask a question or share their story, including Trey Ramsey, a former police officer who said he backed Mr. Trump in 2016 and Mr. Abbott in 2018 but had become disillusioned with the Republican Party. His wife is volunteering for Mr. O’Rourke.

Eventually, Mr. Parker grew impatient with waiting outside and, along with several armed supporters, entered the church. Some shouted at Mr. O’Rourke. As they filled the center aisle, a few dozen feet from Mr. O’Rourke, the town’s police chief urged them to “keep cool,” but people were ruffled nonetheless.

“It was a real kind of a shock,” Mr. Ramsey said. “As a former law enforcement officer, my hairs immediately stood up.”

Mr. O’Rourke agreed to speak with Mr. Parker. They shook hands and, for five minutes, engaged in a discussion of guns.

“I bet that we can agree on something like a universal background check,” Mr. O’Rourke said. “We might be able to agree on a red-flag law.”

“No, sir!” shouted a man who had entered with Mr. Parker.

“The reason for the people to have the Second Amendment, OK, was for — so that we could protect ourselves from big government,” Mr. Parker said.

“You think your right to have a gun is so that you can use it against your government?” Mr. O’Rourke responded.

“Not necessarily,” Mr. Parker said. Before walking away, he told Mr. O’Rourke that he was “not welcome in this town.”

“Hey, there were a lot of people who just welcomed us to this town,” Mr. O’Rourke responded. “And we’ll be back, again and again.”

 

Also, every time the crazies try to make a scene, Beto looks really good and it goes viral. Winning press cycles is important.

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troph

troph 24,547

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I get that being in small town Texas is encouraging for small town Texas progressives. but one interviewed for that article said he was one of 5 democrats in Bowie, TX. Making sure they vote by seeing them isn't how this gets done. Not against Cruz, not against Abbott, not against any Republican.  You can be encouraged to vote by a tight race. This race is tight because of Roe first, Uvalde second, and the Grid third.  Get in the suburbs and rake Abbott across the coals over, and over, and over again.

33 minutes ago, chainsaw said:

Also, every time the crazies try to make a scene, Beto looks really good and it goes viral. Winning press cycles is important.

this is to me the biggest value of the stump speech for him but he's getting these viral moments everywhere, not just in rural Texas.

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chainsaw

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3 minutes ago, troph said:

I get that being in small town Texas is encouraging for small town Texas progressives. but one interviewed for that article said he was one of 5 democrats in Bowie, TX. Making sure they vote by seeing them isn't how this gets done. Not against Cruz, not against Abbott, not against any Republican.  You can be encouraged to vote by a tight race. This race is tight because of Roe first, Uvalde second, and the Grid third.  Get in the suburbs and rake Abbott across the coals over, and over, and over again.

this is to me the biggest value of the stump speech for him but he's getting these viral moments everywhere, not just in rural Texas.

That's true, but I think rural Texas has a higher probability of a right winger feeling brave enough to talk shit

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