Standing room only for Beto O'Rourke's visit to Cleburne

Aug. 10—Several hundred packed Kaufmann Leadership Academy's sweltering gymnasium on Wednesday morning to welcome Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke to Cleburne with several dozen others unable to get inside braving the heat and then rain in the parking lot.

Although the crowd leaned overwhelmingly O'Rourke supportive, several were anything but. Two attendees held signs reading "Boo Beto. Get out of Texas. We don't want you here" and "Beto the [expletive deleted] from El Paso" aloft among the sea of blue and white Beto signs, while at least two other attendees shouted their disagreement with the candidate.

"Everyone is welcome here and we're going to have a great conversation," one O'Rourke campaign worker said before O'Rourke entered the gym.

"It's hard to believe that in a little under three months we're going to decide the outcome of the most important election in the history of the state of Texas," O'Rourke said. "Perhaps the most important election taking place anywhere in America today."

O'Rourke said he's confident of victory heading into November's general election.

"Thanks to you and everyone that's here we are going to win," O'Rourke said. "I know we're going to win because we're fighting for every woman in Texas to make her own decision when it comes to her health care. Because we can get behind every public school educator and make sure we've got their backs as they go into this school year and every school year hereafter."

Should he win, O'Rourke promised to expand Medicaid in the state of Texas.

"That fact that we're leaving $10 billion of our federal income taxes in D.C. and refusing to bring that money back to Texas," O'Rourke said. "To stand up for our closed rural hospitals, connect more people in need of mental health services with the care they need in a state whose largest provider of mental health care service is the county jail system is tragic."

The irony, O'Rourke said, is that Medicaid came about because of Lyndon Johnson, the first U.S. President from Texas. (Actually, the second. Dwight Eisenhower was born in Denison.]

The other kicker, O'Rourke said, is that the governors of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico, three of whom are Republican, have accepted Medicaid expansion into their states.

"Doing so will lower our property tax bills," O'Rourke said. "We are paying for the uncompensated care in our county hospitals today because of the uninsured people who don't qualify for Medicaid under our state's current system. Those people don't get preventative care and don't go to doctors until they just have to but their bills don't go away. They just get passed along in the form of higher property taxes, higher insurance premiums, deductible and co-pays."

Beating his Republican challenger, incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott, in November represents a tall challenge, O'Rourke admitted, but is doable.

"We're running against someone who is at odds against everything that represents our values as Texans," O'Rourke said. "I don't know that he wants any of these bad things to happen to us and our fellow Texans. But I do know that he is either unable or unwilling to make the changes necessary to fix things."

O'Rourke minced no words when referring to Abbott and characterized the governor's tenure as one of chaos, cruelty, incompetence and corruption.

O'Rourke laid blame for the failure of the state's power grid and subsequent deaths of about 700 during the 2020 snow and ice storms of February squarely in Abbott's lap.

"Abbott was warned repeatedly beforehand that the grid would not hold up and yet he did nothing," O'Rourke said. "After it happened we saw him on Fox News attacking the Green New Deal and saw [U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX,] at the Ritz Carlton in Cancun."

"The kicker is, the grid is still not fixed," O'Rourke said.

O'Rourke called the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services the worst managed foster care program in the U.S. bar none.

"Not because of our heroic caseworkers who are trying their best," O'Rourke said. "But because of a governor who will not resource the program."

If elected, O'Rourke vowed to institute universal background checks for gun purchases, legalize marijuana and fight to protect women's rights to choose as well as the rights of trans gender and gay residents.

O'Rourke promised also to fight to roll back efforts he said Abbott and other Republicans have put in place to limit access to voting.

Abbott, O'Rourke said, would rather distract and scare Texans with tales of trans gender kids and illegal aliens than tackle legitimate issues.

"The last thing he wants you to focus on is the fact that he can't keep the lights on in the state of Texas or that our public school educators are leaving by the thousands and that he's the largest, biggest driver of inflation in the state of Texas," O'Rourke said. "Property taxes are up $20 billion, utility rates are up.

While answering a question about immigration posed by one audience member, O'Rourke said that Abbott would rather scare Texans with stories of Mexicans coming across the border to get them and characterize such as an invasion to which one, possibly two audience members shouted out that it is an invasion.

"I'm going to get to the question buddy," O'Rourke said. "Are you scared of hearing it?"

Those from south of the border who want to come to America to work especially in jobs that, "frankly, no one born in the state of Texas is willing to do," should be free to do so, O'Rourke said, provided certain conditions are met.

"There should be a legal, safe and orderly path for them to do it, no ifs ands or buts," O'Rourke said.

Immigration laws, which have not been updated since Ronald Reagan was president need to be revisited, O'Rourke said.

The process of joining family members here can take up to 20 years, O'Rourke said.

"I understand why someone might jump it," O'Rourke said. "I don't condone it. It isn't justified. I don't want anybody to do it but I understand why that's happening right now."

Likewise with asylum requests, which can take up to six years.

Both systems need to be revisited, streamlined and updated, O'Rourke said.

Referring to the recent deaths of migrants in the back of a tractor trailer in San Antonio, said no one would endure such dangers and risks were they not facing certain death in their own country.

"Then, if they don't pass the asylum bar, and some Democrats don't like to hear this, you've got to go back to your country," O'Rourke said. "You've got to follow the law. That's the only way this thing is going to work.

"Then we can focus on the small percentage of those who do want to do us harm through Fentanyl and human trafficking. Right now they're the needles in this giant haystack of people who want to come here to work or seek asylum, or be with their families."

Following his speech, O'Rourke remained in the parking lot to greet a line of attendees waiting to talk to him.

"Excitement about Beto," Cleburne resident Michael Moore said when asked why he attended Wednesday's event. "The energy and the truth telling he brings to the table. An exciting new direction and a message of hope for people who need hope. And this state is full of people who are needing hope right now."

Moore said he feel energized despite the fact that a Democrat has not held statewide office in Texas for decades.

"I think it's realistic," Moore said of O'Rourke's chance of success in November. "Who thought what happened in Kansas just last week would've happened? But the people stood up and said no. Said this is the way we want our elected officials to do and the way we want our state to be."