Beto O'Rourke in Abilene stop touts understanding, economic growth as Texas future

Striding energetically to the stage at Play Faire Park in Abilene on Monday, Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke immediately lauded some of the younger members of the crowd.

Three sat in front of the venue's music stage, holding signs.

O'Rourke said their faces were "a great reminder of what this is all about and why are we gathered here tonight."

The purpose of O'Rourke's first stop in Abilene after announcing his candidacy, he said, was to help pave a path for generations to come.

"We have some consequential decisions," he said. "And in what I still believe to be the world's greatest democracy, we are going to make them together. Not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Texans."

A crowd of several hundred thronged the venue to hear the candidate, attendees generally skewing younger but with plenty of gray hair peppered in.

The crowd of several hundred reacted enthusiastically to the candidate's points on energy, education, medical care and civility.

After his remarks, the line for selfies was long.

No protesters were in evidence.

Pressure test

Democracy, is "facing a real pressure test now," O'Rourke said, and it is essential "first and foremost as Texans to make sure we can keep it going."

Safeguarded by veterans, such as those who have served at Dyess Air Force Base, democracy is also secured by the ability to "freely and fairly choose those who will represent us in positions of power," he said.

"I want to make sure that we keep it going and I want to make sure that as we make these decisions ... we're talking about the things that matter most to each and every single one of us," he said.

O'Rourke, who earlier in the day traveled to De Leon in Comanche County, said he'd already talked to peanut farmers about thin profit margins and to an individual worried about the events of Jan. 6 and "what that bodes for our democracy."

Others he'd spoken to wanted to "just get back to some civility and respect among us," he said, while still others wanted to discuss the pandemic and the toll it had taken on their lives and the lives of loved ones in a time when "vaccines have become incredibly political."

The big things

But the "big things that we want to do" really don't divide us, he said.

That includes individuals not being forced to work a second or even third job to make ends meet, he said, though more than 40% of Texans do not earn enough in their primary job to do so.

Creating the best jobs in Texas, he said, should be a goal for Republicans and Democrats, he said.

Texans should be grateful for those in the oil and gas industry, who "through their hard work and innovation have literally powered the growth and the success of America," he said.

But it's also important, he said, to make the most of a "renewable energy revolution that is sweeping the world."

"I want to make sure that Texas does not take its current energy lead for granted, that we jealously guard those energy jobs that we have today," he said.

But Texans should also embrace "our proud heritage and tradition of innovation and ingenuity, and make sure that we bring that to bear on our current possibilities," he said, especially since such jobs are "among the highest paying, the highest value and the highest-skilled jobs being created anywhere in the world."

"We want them right here in the state of Texas, we want them in Abilene," he said.

Educational opportunity

Securing that future will require a strong educational system, he said.

But right now, in the average Texas fourth-grade classroom, seven out of 10 children "cannot read at grade level," he said.

"The folks in Austin may try to distract you about which boy or girl can use which restroom, or which girl can play which athletic sports or if there is pornography in our libraries or whether we're teaching (critical race theory) or something else," he said.

But most parents, himself included, "really want to make sure that our kids can read and write and do the basic arithmetic that will allow them to be competitive," O'Rourke said.

Texas teachers, forced to teach to high-pressure standardized tests, are insufficiently paid, but often still willing to pay out of their own pockets for extra notebooks and supplies, or even meals for students on free or reduced-priced lunches who might not otherwise have a warm meal in the evening, he said.

But the state's teachers, he said, are paid on average $10,000 less than the U.S. average, and more than half of Texas school teachers work a second or third job to make ends meet.

"(What if) we paid every Texas teacher what they're worth?" he asked.

Expanding Medicaid in Texas, at a time when the federal government is "willing to pay 95 cents on the dollar," is simply wise, he said, helping the medical industry and hundreds of thousands of Texans who currently earn too much to qualify, but don't earn enough to afford private insurance.

Money returned from no longer footing the bill for uncompensated care could be used to pay teachers or be returned to taxpayers, O'Rourke said.

Trial and reward

The country as a whole is experiencing a "very divided and highly polarized time," he said, but "we are a Texas that is big enough for all of us."

"The extremism, the fringe politics and policies that you see right now, these fights over meaningless differences that should not be allowed to define us, that cannot be us," O'Rourke said.

Better examples could be found, he said, in the aftermath of the recent storm, when people knocked on neighbor's doors, reaching out to those "who might need some assistance, a place to get warm, some food, some water."

"That's how I see the people in Texas," he said. "That's how I would like us to define ourselves."

To achieve such goals, he said, will require work over the course of the next year, voters set to decide "the outcome of the most consequential election in Texas history."

He acknowledged that some have said "Taylor County is so red you can see it glowing from outer space."

But he said it is also a "non-voting county," with often low turnouts.

That represents an opportunity, he said, though it will require knocking on doors to invite those who may have not participated — for whatever reason — to the polls.

"If each one of us here took on the charge and the challenge to do our part and to knock on 20 doors, 100 doors, a few hundred doors over the course of this next year, those numbers really begin to add up," he said.

Social media may be "instantly gratifying, but it is absolutely insufficient" for the task at hand, he said.

"Let us make it about, especially after two years in quarantine and isolation from one another, showing up at our neighbor's door," he said.

Brian Bethel covers city and county government and general news for the Abilene Reporter-News. If you appreciate locally driven news, you can support local journalists with a digital subscription to ReporterNews.com.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Beto in stop at Play Faire touts understanding, economic growth