Beto O’Rourke skateboarding in the Whataburger parking lot https://t.co/PE5fWLddnN pic.twitter.com/OTQUaOaxsE
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) August 19, 2018
Ted Cruz, not to be outmanuevered, shall release video of himself BMXing in the parking lot of WhatAboutBurger ending badly as he runs into the back of a truck
— David Rowinski (@bolekaja1001) August 19, 2018
I spent 5 days trailing the Beto O'Rourke campaign through West-Central Texas — and wrote a piece that's much more about the communities responding to him, and the idea of the midterms as "the election of our lifetimes":https://t.co/vBj8AU4UVZ pic.twitter.com/S1txsVpa3W
— Anne Helen Petersen (@annehelen) August 19, 2018
… When O’Rourke speaks on the stump, he punctuates his points by moving his left hand up and down, like he’s directing traffic. His voice isn’t particularly melodic; he’s Lincoln-lanky; he lacks the preacher’s cadence that marked former president Obama’s speeches. But O’Rourke’s energy is palpable, infectious; his sweat is the physical evidence of that energy leaving his body. And it seems to be working. Even as he struggles with a continued lack of name recognition, in a state that has consistently voted Republican for the past three decades, recent polling places O’Rourke just two to six points behind Cruz. Among volunteers, there’s cautious yet barely contained glee: Could O’Rourke pull off an upset that, just six months before, seemed impossible?
By the time O’Rourke reaches the peaks of his stump speech in Kerrville — advocating for better treatment of Texas’s teachers, arguing for universal health care, and decrying family separation at the border — his shirt is full-on stuck to his back, and the crowd feels ready to ignite. When he announces that he hasn’t taken any money from PACs, instead raising $10.4 million (with an average donation of $33) to Cruz’s $4.6 million over the last quarter, the audience explodes.
Long Read: “Beto O’Rourke Could Be The Democrat Texas Has Been Waiting For”Post + Comments (120)