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The Texas Senate Democratic candidate, Beto O. Rouke, gathered thousands of people on Saturday night with Willie Nelson, offering an openly liberal vision of the country's largest conservative state and promising his campaign.
Taking an outdoor scene in the progressive-minded capital of Texas, O 'Rourke said he wanted to appeal to voters from both parties and independents, but called for universal health and the rights of homosexuals. his spanish fluent in denouncing President Donald Trump's calls to the wall of the US-Mexican border. He also decried the federal government's war on drugs, saying it was disproportionately aimed at minorities and the poor.
"The people of the future are counting on us while we can still get that right," said O & Rourke about changing the direction of Texas, where a Democrat did not win office since 1994. Despite the refusal of donations from political action committees, O "Rourke appreciated the monstrous fundraising that overtook Cruz. He said that this allowed him to focus on "the people and that's how we win this election".
After Nelson took the stage, O'Rourke sang the famous hit "On the Road Again" as the crowd cheered, many wearing T-shirts or placards with the candidate's name.
A three-seat Congressman from El Paso, O'Rourke, has openly shifted to the left, unlike some other Democrats competing in tight and narrow Senate races across the country.
These include Phil Bredesen, a former Tennessee Democratic governor who has openly adopted the mantra of a moderate and distanced himself from his own party as he was trying to win a seat in a state. Trump, won two years ago by 26 points, almost three times his margin of victory of 9 points in Texas. Arizona Democratic Rep Kyrsten Sinema is also a candidate for the Senate as a centrist, despite his career as a Green Party activist.
O'Rourke also maintained the support of his national party, while respecting his more liberal views, not slaughtering them. He also suggested he be open to the abolition of the US Immigration and Customs Agency and the removal of Trump.
The second debate between Cruz and O'Rourke was scheduled for Sunday night at the University of Houston, but was postponed. During their first week in Dallas, the two candidates largely focused on the red meat issues that excite their bases while doing little to attract the moderates. O'Rourke said Nelson's event was not about wooing swing voters either.
"It's an event in Texas and there is not much more Texas than Willie Nelson," said Chris Evans, O'Rourke spokesman.
O & # 39; Rourke also spoke at the Nelson Fourth Picnic event in Austin in July to play guitar at the late-night finals of "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and "I'll Fly Away". the stakes are higher this time.
His strategy stands out from that of the Texas Democrats who tried to portray themselves as moderates to fail miserably. When Wendy Davis used a Texas Senate buccaneer to defend the right to abortion and gain national prominence and run for governorship in 2014, she approved the open hand carry of handguns. It did not help, Republican Greg Abbott beat him by more than 20 points.
Paul Sadler, a former underfunded state official whom Cruz has defeated by nearly 16 points in 2012, said only conservative Democrats could hope to overthrow a state like Texas. in 31 states. He said that Beto "reflected the more modern and young thinking within the Democratic Party".
"I'm not sure we're really calling these Liberal issues rather than simply reflecting the people we're supposed to represent," said Sadler.
At 85, Nelson is not young, of course. But he is a long-time advocate of the legalization of marijuana that has founded his own cannabis company for places where it is legal, with the exception of Texas, which only allows patients with refractory epilepsy.
Some critics have published online comments reprimanding Nelson for supporting a "socialist" and calling for a boycott, but Nelson ignored these remarks.
"I love flack," he said on ABC's "The View." "We are not happy" until they are not happy. "
His cannabis company, Willie's Reserve, responded to the Conservatives' call to burn Nelson's records by deadpanning on Twitter.
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