A recap of Beto O’Rourke’s visit to New Mexico State University
Beto O’Rourke’s first public visit to New Mexico State University on Friday, Oct. 20 featured cheers, applause and encouragement to run for office again.
O'Rourke took center stage at the ASNMSU Center for the Arts last week ahead of the upcoming election.
A small crowd of about 100 attended the event as part of the Nelson Boswell Reading Series put on by the university’s creative writing program. The series welcomes authors of all works to share their books and backstories with the university and Las Cruces community. The hope is that the series inspires other local artists to explore their talents, according to the series’ webpage.
O’Rourke, a former congressman and outspoken critic of his home state’s treatment of voters, talked about his second book ‘’We’ve Got to Try: How the Fight for Voting Rights Makes Everything Else Possible.” He took questions from crowd members afterwards and signed copies of his book.
Here’s a glimpse of what inspired him to write it and a look at some questions community members asked him.
Why O’Rourke wrote about voting rights
The book dives into a history of Texas’ voting laws in the 1900s which discriminate against minorities and people of color.
Through the lens of Dr. Lawrence Nixon, a black doctor who was prohibited from voting in the democratic primary in 1924, and modern day voters he met on the campaign trail, O’Rourke writes about the experience these individuals have endured and what it took for them to overcome voting challenges.
In his talk, O'Rourke expands on that idea by saying the state still prohibits voters from having more access to the ballot box at a time when Texas faces restricted reproductive health care, is the highest for uninsured citizens, has one of the lowest minimum wages in the country and has high prison populations.
“We have an organization in El Paso and throughout the state of Texas called Power by People that registers eligible voters at a large scale in Texas. In 2020, we registered a little over 200,000 voters and we hope to register significantly more this year,” O’Rourke said. “Part of the solution to some of the voting challenges that we described in Texas has to do with just making sure that more people are on the rolls, even if they're voting at a disadvantage.”
He told the crowd that these issues were the driving force for his research and writing of the book along with his interest in politics.
“Confronting these issues by running for office is one approach that I've taken,” O’Rourke said. “I ran some races in Texas against Ted Cruz in 2018, against Greg Abbott in 2022, and as you all know, we came up short. That was my way of trying to do what I could. We knew that the odds were not with us, but we knew that we could not remain silent in the face of this outrage."
O’Rourke said that his mission was to better understand the historical context of what keeps voters from turning up at general and midterm elections.
He ended his speech with advice to those who want to better understand and stay engaged with political issues.
“One conclusion I reached in researching and writing this book is that no victory whether it's the Voting Rights Act of 1965, or Roe vs Wade in 1973 is ever going to be final in this country," he said. "The fight goes on for as long as we can draw a breath into our lungs. As soon as we internalize that, and act on that, we find that there's actually joy in that work.”
What audience members asked O’Rourke
The question that many have asked since O’Rourke lost the 2022 race: Will he run for office anytime soon?
“I can see that you're really passionate about Texas, but have you considered moving to New Mexico, you could get elected to senate or governor of New Mexico, no problem,” one man asked.
O’Rourke joked that Doña Ana dog catcher was the only position he had considered. He did, however, say there were no plans to relocate to New Mexico, for now.
Another question addressed was from Associated Students of New Mexico State University Senator Rahaf Ben Ali. She asked O’Rourke what he thought about the on-going conflict between Israel and Palestine and how the U.S. should be addressing the matter.
He started off by saying terrorism of any kind shouldn’t be justified and that civilians are the most impacted and are caught in the crossfire. He said this is especially true when everyday necessities like food, water and shelter become inaccessible.
“It is absolutely ripping my heart up in every direction to see all of this from the terror attack in Israel to the bombing in Gaza to the pictures of children being lifted out of rubble and what many have described as the largest open-air prison on the planet," he said. "We as Americans have to be able to do better there. I sure hope that we will."
Ernesto Cisneros is a reporting fellow with the UNM/NM Local News Fund program. He covers education for the Sun-News and can be reached at ECisneros@lcsun-news.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter at @_ernestcisneros.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: A recap of Beto O’Rourke’s visit to New Mexico State University
