Beto O'Rourke will visit Tuscaloosa to discuss voting rights, new book

Attacks on voting rights are nothing new, says political activist, politician and writer Beto O'Rourke, but the continuum of an ongoing struggle. As with the war to preserve democracy, it requires constant vigilance.

In his 2023 book, "We've Got to Try: How the Fight for Voting Rights Makes Everything Else Possible," which O'Rourke will be in Tuscaloosa on Thursday to discuss, he writes:

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“We are always becoming a democracy; it never ends. It can be exhausting, daunting even brutal work. But compared to the alternative? We don’t have a choice. … We know one thing for sure. We’ve got to try.”

"Having run for the Senate in Texas, and as a Democrat, to come so close?" O'Rourke said, in a phone interview on the book-tour road, in advance of his Tuscaloosa appearance. "Part of what held us back was the most significant voter suppression and voter intimidation since 1965, and the era of Jim Crow."

This book grew from frustration with politics-as-usual, coalesced around stirring stories he heard while campaigning, working to register voters, and find volunteers for his group Powered by People, knocking on doors in all 254 Texas counties, assembling grassroots efforts to support Democratic candidates and ideas.

"How are we going to overcome this? Can we overcome this?" O'Rourke said.

To answer, he shared tales of those who've fought, including fellow Texans such as Dr. Lawrence Aaron Nixon, who struggled for more than 20 years, encompassing two Supreme Court visits, before being allowed to vote. The book's title stems from a statement Nixon made at a polling place in 1924: "I know you can't let me vote, but I've got to try."

O'Rourke's book also weaves in the first president from Texas, Lyndon Baines Johnson, pushing for and signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and other histories he didn't learn in school.

"Some of these stories I knew, but only faintly," he said. "I knew there was a Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon Elementary School in El Paso, but I really didn't know the full story. We were never taught this when I was a kid."

Nixon's story returns throughout, though O'Rourke shares others, such as a horrifying incident from 1886 in which Black poll workers, attempting to stop a white thief who had attempted to literally steal their votes, killed the gun-wielding attacker in self-defense. Eight Black men were arrested and charged with murder; three were abducted from the jail and lynched. O'Rourke connects the dots in racist violence and oppression up through the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the nation's capitol, and to Texas' voting restriction bill, SB 1, passed last August.

"At this moment, when our democracy faces its greatest tests since the Civil War, for me, the absolute answer to the question is 'Yes, we can do it.' Because we did it before," O'Rourke said.

"Who are we to shirk our opportunity, and our responsibility, in the face of these threats?"

O'Rourke's visit is sponsored by Ernest and Hadley Booksellers, but in anticipation of a larger-than-usual crowd, will be held 6 p.m. Thursday at Easterseals West Alabama.

It's free, but those wishing to go should register on Eventbrite, at www.eventbrite.com/e/beto-orourke-book-talk-signing-tickets-807189945857. Patrons wishing to buy a book at the same time can register for $24.25. Easterseals is at 1400 James I. Harrison Jr. Parkway in Tuscaloosa.

O'Rourke plans to talk about the need for the ongoing battles, then converse with the audience, Q&A style. He'll also be available to sign copies of the book.

Born and raised in El Paso to a political family, he received the family nickname Beto (pronounced BET-oh) to distinguish him from grandad namesake Robert Francis O'Rourke. His gregarious father, Pat O'Rourke, served as county commissioner and county judge, and as state chairman of Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns. Pat often took his more reticent son along on campaign events, who wasn't a political natural. But he took to public service after being a musician — bassist in punk band Foss ― live-in caretaker, art mover, proofreader, internet service and software worker, and writer-editor for an online newspaper he co-created with wife Amy, called Stanton Street.

Work on that site drove his early political ideas, along with involvement in civic organizations and nonprofit groups such as Rotary Club, United Way, Center Against Sexual and Family Violence, the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at UTEP.

He ran for and won a seat on the El Paso City Council in 2005, and was chosen as mayor pro tem by unanimous vote in his first meeting. O'Rourke became known for on-foot campaigning, his distrust of PACs, and his clever use of social media.

After serving as U.S. representative for Texas' 16th congressional district from 2013-2019, he set eyes on higher office. In 2018, he was seen as a long-shot candidate for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Ted Cruz. Though losing by 2.6%, he set a record for most votes cast for a Democrat in a midterm election in Texas, and began to garner national attention. In 2019, he launched a presidential campaign, suspending it in 2020, and endorsing Joe Biden. He ran for governor in 2022, but was defeated by Republican Greg Abbott.

During his 2018 campaign, the Washington Post wrote "Can a Democrat really win in this deeply red state against Cruz, who will be running one of the best-financed campaigns in the country? And can he do so on a positive message about Mexicans in an era when calling them rapists helped make a man president?"

Overcoming odds, he was said to have won debates against more-experienced Cruz, and drew endorsements not just from major newspapers including the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, but from Willie Nelson, who held a rally for him, and wrote and performed a new song, "Vote 'Em Out," in O'Rourke's honor.

He also drew backing from prominent Texans including Beyonce, Khalid, Aaron Jones and Eva Longoria, and as his national star rose, from folks as varied as LeBron James, Jim Carrey and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Though the incumbent won 50.9% to 48.3%, O'Rourke closed a nine-point gap, and was credited with the "Beto Effect," helping down-ticket Democrats win offices in long-held Republican seats.

After suspending his presidential run in 2020, he founded the group Powered by People, continuing to knock on doors, work on grassroots efforts to register voters, and get them out to support Democratic candidates.

The book tour provides more opportunities to learn, he said.

"Like everyone, I need some bucking up right now," he said. "I'm traveling on the book to share that message, but also to listen."

Reach Mark Hughes Cobb at mark.cobb@tuscaloosanews.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Beto O'Rourke will discuss his new book in Tuscaloosa stop