Beto O'Rourke bounces back from illness, returns to 'Drive for Texas' campaign

Beto O’Rourke returned to the campaign trail Friday after a bout with illness that forced the Democrat gubernatorial candidate to suspend a week’s worth of events.

A crowd of more than 500 people in Laredo, Texas, erupted in cheers when O’Rourke came into a firefighters union hall decorated with the Texas flag and red, white and blue balloons.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who has represented South Texas for 16 years, rallied Democrat supporters and introduced the born-and-raised El Pasoan after Democratic candidates for Texas land commissioner, attorney general and others spoke.

A roomful of cheers and applause: to gas prices going down, to job creation Cuellar attributed to President Joe Biden. A roomful of boos: for a litany of unfavorable Republican comparisons he alleged on infrastructure, health care, schools and civil rights.

“Does it make a difference if we have a Democrat? Yes, it does,” Cuellar shouted while standing on a wooden box in the center of the room.

Supporters waved black-and-white "Beto for Texas" signs, shook silver pom poms and spun noisemakers. The cheers got louder as O'Rourke took the microphone from Cuellar.

"We are going to win because we are running against the worst governor in the United States today," he said, slinging political barbs at incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott.

There were shouts of praise and hoots as O’Rourke promised that he would work to return women’s rights to abortion, to enact red-flag laws to prevent criminals and potentially dangerous people from obtaining weapons, to fix the electric grid and support veterans.

The candidate was preaching to his choir: This was a rally in a Democratic stronghold. A sign at the entrance warned that unfriendly disruptions wouldn't be tolerated.

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Beto O'Rourke 'Drive for Texas' tour continues after illness

O'Rourke, who turns 50 later this month, has been on a whirlwind driving tour with the goal of making stops in all 254 Texas counties. He had postponed events in South Texas counties while he recovered from a bacterial infection, he said in a Twitter post on Sunday.

O'Rourke's campaign website said events in Brownsville, Roma and Zapata would be rescheduled, as would events in San Antonio, Pearsall, Three Rivers, Corpus Christi, Goliad and Falfurrias.

Two months ahead of the Nov. 8 election, O'Rourke continues to trail Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by 7 percentage points, according to a poll conducted during the first week of August by the Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler.

Both candidates are courting voters in Texas border counties, where a majority of voters register as Democrats but have been increasingly willing to vote for Republican candidates.

Earlier Friday, just south of Laredo in Zapata County, where O'Rourke postponed a rally scheduled for Friday, voters said they were worried about access to water, border security and guns. Some said they were still trying to make up their minds about whether to keep Abbott or send O'Rourke to the governor's mansion.

Larissa Gonzalez runs a coffee shop called Fotofino in a barnlike building surrounded by nopales a few miles outside town. The two-lane Highway 83 runs past her door and the U.S.-Mexico borderline is "a short jog" south, she said.

Border county residents like to make sure their state and national politicians "don't go too much on the left and don't go too much on the right," she said. She said is leaning toward voting for Abbott, because she worries about what a change might mean for border security or for gun owners' rights.

In the county building in town, Delia Mendoza wears three hats: county tax assessor, tax collector and voter registrar.

There are about 7,900 registered voters in the border county, she said, with a population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, of 14,243.

"I believe a lot of people voted for Abbott" during the last election, Mendoza said, "but he didn't have a strong opponent. But this time around there are a lot of people who see Mr. O'Rourke doing a little more for Texas than Mr. Abbott."

Laredo rally attracts new Texas voters, veterans

Vietnam veteran John Vargas, 72, greeted people outside as they entered the firefighters union hall.

“We need a change,” he said, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with O’Rourke’s silhouette.

Restoring abortion rights and taking a new approach to border security are his top issues, he said. Immigration is something to be managed, he said, not to be labeled an “invasion” or resolved with the National Guard.

“The governor is not supporting us,” he said.

Bernie Magallanes, 18, grabbed a front-row seat at the rally after registering to vote earlier in the day.

Afterward, he said he wants to hear more about O'Rourke's plans to fix the state's infrastructure and electric grid. Magallanes said his grandparents, including a grandfather with Alzheimer's, went without power for three days when a winter storm knocked out the aging grid last year.

"I am going to do more research," he said, "but I liked what plans he has for it."

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Beto O'Rourke returns to Texas governor campaign trail after illness