Journalism about Rep. O'Rouke's US Senate Campaign: Letters to the Editor Will Help Win Back Another Senate Seat

O'Rourke discussed everything from immigration to dynamics of the current presidential administration. "It's not just stopping the bad stuff, and listen there's a lot of bad stuff got to stop. But it's also about doing the great things that animate us as Americans."

Charles Rey Luna, a Corpus resident who came out to the event, said O'Rourke seems to be in tune with the community. "He seems to have a really good insight on the community here and the community in Texas."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

I commend this article to your attention, because of its environmental focus and its blunt discussion of Trump's Border Wall, and also because the writer took the time to really ask people for their reaction to what O'Rourke was saying"

BY LORENZO ZAZUETA-CASTRO | STAFF WRITER / ALAMO, Texas

To attract additional attention to the government's looming plan to begin border wall construction through prestigious pieces of land in the Rio Grande Valley, Beto O'Rourke, toured Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge Monday, as part of his Tour of Texas, making stops in every county in the state as he challenges Ted Cruz, visited the refuge after a town hall drew more than 300 people.

"We want to share the border because shame on us for getting to a point in this country where they think it's okay to put a wall through the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge," O'Rourke said to a group. "Obviously we haven't done a good enough job sharing our story, describing what's at stake, letting people know the border is safe, it's secure, it's successful, it's positive, we're proud of it, (and) we're going to protect it, but it's going to be incumbent on us to share that with everybody today. Your being here is helping us to do that."

Led by Sierra Club Executive Member Scott Nicol, O'Rourke took a tour of a portion of the more than 2,000-acre refuge, home to some of the world's most unique species of animals and plants. Pointing to where workers began marking off areas for the proposed wall, which would sit on top of the levee, Nicol said the construction would cut the public off from the rest of the refuge. "It would also fragment more habitat and wildlife." Nicol answered O' Rourke's questions about the local species and possible damage that could come as a result of the wall's construction as they walked a portion of the refuge's seemingly endless trails.

Gary Cooper, 58, of McAllen: "I hope it'll wake people up. I hope it'll get people's attention of what we're losing here. And can it be stopped? I don't want to have to tell future generations that I did absolutely nothing about it."

When asked what could be done to stop the wall construction, O'Rourke said: "There are authorities that the administration already has; resources that they can already use to move forward with projects like these. (But) short of an explicit denial of that authority by Congress, which is really unlikely, what you're going to have to count on is the power of public opinion, and the political will that is built by people taking matters into their own hands. I feel like the border is rising up, standing up for itself, sharing this incredibly positive, beautiful and powerful story of who we are. Santa Ana is part of who we are. This is the heritage that we've inherited, that we want to pass on to our kids, that we want the rest of the country, the rest of Texas to see. We don't want a wall to close off that possibility. It is the people who live around Santa Ana who are going to save Santa Ana and that's exciting to me, that's the power of democracy."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Economist, in the United States section on Aug 24th 2017

(A particularly compelling point is made at the end of this article, one that goes far in explaining why O'Rourke's campaign is so important, win or lose. I say he will win, so I don't agree at all with the very predictable stance of the Economist to look down their noses, askance at anything resembling Populism. However, remember that this article appeared at the end of August last year, a very long time ago in a fast moving campaign like O'Rourke's! Stephen Fox)

A Democrat in a deep red state

Beto O'Rourke suggests how the Democrats might recover

A conventional Democrat running for the Senate in Texas would lambast the Republican up for re-election in 2018: Ted Cruz, a divisive, God-and-guns, government-bashing conservative and former presidential challenger. Instead, O'Rourke barely mentions Cruz. He merely contrasts his own record of holding monthly town-hall meetings in El Paso (meeting voters instills a "healthy fear" when casting votes in DC, he says) with Cruz's relative inaccessibility.

Next Page  1  |  2  |  3  |  4  |  5  |  6  |  7  |  8  |  9  |  10  |  11  |  12  |  13  |  14  |  15

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).