By Juliana Vasquez | Staff Writer, Jacob Stowers | Broadcast Reporter
Former Gubernatorial Candidate Beto O’Rourke rallied Democrats in Waco on Wednesday night at Waco High School for an event organized by Powered by People. O’Rourke urged volunteers and young voters to organize, increase turnout and help flip Texas blue in the midterms.
LTVN’s Jacob Stowers has more on this story.
Executive Director for Powered by People Aimee Prudhomme said Founder O’Rourke utilizes the organization to connect with individuals along the campaign trail.
“Even though he’s not running for anything, he is out here talking to the people,” Prudhomme said. “That’s what he loves to do.”
The political action committee’s goal this election season is to flip Texas blue by the midterms by increasing voter turnout and informing voters before consequential elections.
O’Rourke takes a very hands-on approach with this goal, aiming to meet Texans where they are and speaking with them in town hall-style meetings.
“My philosophy that’s guided me in my life, certainly in politics, is I have no business trying to serve you if I haven’t first met you and listened to you to find out what moves you, what you’re scared of, what you dream of and what we might be able to do together,” O’Rourke said.
The organization believes in its message, and O’Rourke cited a Texas A&M initiative they led to mobilize voters as an example. According to O’Rourke, the initiative increased the presence of Democrats at the conservative university.
“It used to be thought that Texas A&M was the largest reliably red university campus in the country,” O’Rourke said. “We started showing up there … and we did so well in the elections … that they removed the polling places from the campus.”
O’Rourke believes that Democratic voters have a real shot at flipping various red districts blue, as seen from Democrat Taylor Rehmet’s upset win in Tarrant County.
“It was independents, it was Republicans, it was folks who had checked out from elections and said, ‘I just don’t want any of this stuff because it never seems to work,’” O’Rourke said. “And yet they had faith in our future.”
O’Rourke outlined his hopes and dreams for the future of the Democratic Party, believing that young voters would be the ones to invoke real change within the party.
“I want Democrats to build the democracy that we deserve,” O’Rourke said. “I want there to be term limits, I want big money out of colleges, [I want] to prevail over any one person or any political party.”
However, O’Rourke said these changes can’t happen without college-age voters, a theme he revisited throughout the night.
“This is your chance and I want to tell you, you are damn lucky to be alive at this moment in history,” O’Rourke said. “How many generations have had the chance to save this country at its moment of truth?”
Waco senior and Baylor College Democrats President JW LaStrape said O’Rourke’s energy at the event is exactly what voters need going into the primary election season.
“Beto had a really good point about what Democrats need to do, not just in this election, but in the future for reforming our entire election system — getting big money out of politics, having an actual workable and functioning democracy,” LaStrape said. “I think that’s energy that we need to bring as progressive students, both here at Baylor and when we go back to our homes.”
