For Beto O’Rourke, 2020 Nonetheless Haunts 2022

TYLER, Texas — Even in deep crimson East Texas, even on a Tuesday afternoon, even after a failed bid for the Senate adopted by a failed bid for president, Beto O’Rourke nonetheless attracts a crowd.

Greater than 100 supporters gathered final week in a park within the metropolis of Tyler, southeast of Dallas within the Piney Woods area. Among the many pleasant crowd, nevertheless, there was concern and even skepticism as Mr. O’Rourke tries to change into the primary Democratic governor of Texas in practically 30 years.

The Texas main is quick approaching on March 1 — early voting started on Monday — however his actual problem is the overall election in November, when he’s anticipated to face the Republican incumbent, Gov. Greg Abbott. A few of Mr. O’Rourke’s feedback geared toward wooing nationwide Democratic voters within the 2020 presidential main — comparable to “Hell sure, we’re going to take your AR-15” — could have already weakened if not doomed his possibilities in November.

“The remark about weapons goes to be his largest downside,” mentioned Holly Gage, 40, who arrived on the Tyler park early along with her household. “My husband is on the fence. It’s as a result of gun factor.”

“Texas,” added her mom, Sheila Thrash, 63, “believes in its weapons.”

Mr. O’Rourke’s presidential marketing campaign shadows his run for governor, complicating his effort to current himself as a practical, there-for-you Texan who embraces accountable gun possession and desires to win over average voters. His 2020 marketing campaign remarks have figured prominently in assaults by Mr. Abbott and are acquainted to many citizens in a state the place Democrats additionally proudly personal weapons. Mr. O’Rourke counts himself amongst their quantity — he and his spouse personal firearms, his marketing campaign mentioned — and he seems effectively conscious of the legal responsibility.

“I’m not all for taking something from anybody,” Mr. O’Rourke mentioned throughout a information convention in Tyler, in response to questions from The New York Instances. “What I need to make certain we do is defend the Second Modification.”

Later in a phone interview, he mentioned he didn’t remorse any coverage positions he took whereas operating for president and denied that he was strolling again his feedback about assault weapons. He mentioned that as governor, he would push for common background checks and necessities for the protected storage of firearms.

“I don’t suppose that we must always have AR-15s and AK-47s on the streets of this state — I’ve seen what they do to my fellow Texans in El Paso in 2019,” he mentioned, referring to a gunman who killed 23 individuals at a Walmart within the deadliest anti-Latino assault in trendy American historical past. “I haven’t modified a factor about that. I’m simply telling you I’m going to concentrate on what I can truly do as governor and the place the widespread floor is.”

Mr. O’Rourke’s predicament illustrates how laborious it may be for a red-state Democrat to return to native politics after operating for federal workplace within the nationwide highlight. What appeals to voters in a crowded Democratic main for president could flip off these in a statewide race again residence in a Republican-dominated state.

On the similar time, Mr. O’Rourke has attracted legions of supporters and impressed Texas Democrats along with his willingness to tackle the state’s strongest officeholders, and his charismatic insistence that Texas will not be destined to stay in Republican palms.

“Nobody goes to experience to our rescue, so we shouldn’t count on that,” Mr. O’Rourke mentioned within the interview, citing new restrictive legal guidelines on abortion and voting handed by the State Legislature and signed by Mr. Abbott final 12 months. “It’s on us, and that’s OK,” he added. “Touring the state, it renews my confidence that we will do that.”

A former three-term congressman from El Paso, Mr. O’Rourke, 49, entered the race for governor late final fall, delivering a jolt to a contest that many Democrats noticed as unwinnable: an off-year election favoring Republicans; an incumbent governor with a roughly $60 million marketing campaign battle chest; and that decades-long dropping streak. No Democrat has gained a statewide race in Texas since 1994.

“We don’t get to select and select what the political setting is like,” mentioned State Consultant Trey Martinez Fischer, a Democrat from San Antonio who has supplied recommendation to Mr. O’Rourke throughout his marketing campaign.

Mr. Martinez Fischer mentioned he didn’t imagine, as some Texas political analysts do, that Mr. O’Rourke’s run was geared toward bolstering Democratic candidates in native races moderately than truly successful. “I don’t suppose that Beto is seeking to do any form of suicide mission,” he mentioned.

Mr. O’Rourke stays the one Democrat in Texas with a powerful statewide marketing campaign group, together with hundreds of devoted volunteers and a capability to lift cash that rivals Mr. Abbott, the two-term Republican incumbent who has overseen a tough proper flip in state authorities. Throughout the latest three-week submitting interval final month, Mr. O’Rourke raised $1.three million, spent $600,000 and had $6 million in his marketing campaign account. Mr. Abbott pulled in $1.Four million, spent $4.5 million and nonetheless had $62 million obtainable in his account.

A lot in regards to the O’Rourke marketing campaign echoes his 2018 race to attempt to unseat Senator Ted Cruz, which energized Democrats throughout Texas and introduced donations pouring in from across the nation. There are the identical black-and-white “Beto” posters, the speeches he delivers from the middle of fawning crowds and the sense that an upset is feasible.

However a lot has modified. Mr. O’Rourke is not a fresh-faced newcomer. A poll last year found that he was better known among Texans than the actor Matthew McConaughey, who briefly flirted with a run for governor himself. Most Texans have an opinion of Mr. O’Rourke, and for a lot of it isn’t favorable. To date, he has trailed Mr. Abbott in each ballot, often by double digits.

Mr. O’Rourke has been operating a extra conventional marketing campaign than he did in 2018, taking massive contributions, conducting polls on points and occurring the assault early in opposition to Mr. Abbott, including in a new ad. He has additionally been extra intently coordinating with the state celebration.

“We’ve already had discussions with him to get the Democratic Celebration and him in excellent sync,” mentioned Gilberto Hinojosa, the chairman of the Texas Democratic Celebration. “That’s one thing that didn’t occur in 2018.”

And Mr. O’Rourke doesn’t profit from the lengthy runway he had in 2018, as he traveled the state and constructed his occasions from dozens of individuals to hundreds. Now, as he drives round Texas highlighting the impacts of final 12 months’s electrical grid failure, he’s trailed by the opposition — members of Mr. Abbott’s marketing campaign who’ve been coordinating with protesters at lots of the stops.

In Tyler, Mr. Abbott’s marketing campaign spokesman, Mark Miner, arrived sooner than Mr. O’Rourke and helped to rearrange a protest in favor of the oil and fuel business that included an enormous rig truck emblazoned with a heroic picture of former President Donald J. Trump.

“It’s in regards to the Inexperienced New Deal versus the power business,” mentioned State Consultant Jay Dean, an East Texas Republican and basic supervisor at Thomas Oilfield Companies, as he stood close to the massive rig that he had helped convey to the protest. “I’m not that involved about him,” he added of Mr. O’Rourke. “To begin with, he’s not going to win.”

At occasions in three cities final week, it was clear that Mr. O’Rourke, nonetheless an lively campaigner who drives himself round Texas, has change into extra cautious in his remarks and packaged in his presentation, as he’s tugged alongside on a good schedule saved by his marketing campaign handlers. And his crowds are full of people that have supported Mr. O’Rourke for years, elevating the query of how a lot he can develop his present base.

In the course of the greater than 2,300-mile tour, which ended Tuesday on the anniversary of the day when the lights went out in most of Texas, Mr. O’Rourke delivered variations on a brief speech targeted on his proposals to handle the wobbly Texas grid, comparable to connecting it with different states and prosecuting those that reaped huge profits from last year’s failure. He elicits cheers with guarantees to legalize marijuana and shield voting rights.

“First time voters!” Mr. O’Rourke yelled earlier than posing with a bunch of younger girls he met in Waco, after a nighttime speech in a park that drew what seemed to be greater than 200 individuals.

In Austin the following day, Mr. O’Rourke visited a nonprofit that helped feed stranded residents throughout final 12 months’s energy grid failure, and he went alongside as their employees handed out meals to homeless women and men in a park between the Colorado River and a busy roadway.

“You keep right here?” Mr. O’Rourke requested throughout a dialog with Josue Garcia, 35.

“Sure, within the inexperienced tent,” mentioned Mr. Garcia, including that he lived within the park along with his spouse and an grownup stepdaughter, who works at Whataburger.

“I’m Beto and it’s an honor to satisfy you.”

“I’ll vote for him for positive,” Mr. Garcia mentioned after Mr. O’Rourke went to speak to a different man.

Later, because the solar set over the State Capitol, a younger and enthusiastic crowd gathered to see Mr. O’Rourke within the parking zone of the Texas AFL-CIO, throughout from the governor’s mansion.

Mr. Abbott was out of city on the time however his marketing campaign spokesman, Mr. Miner, a longtime senior communications aide to prime Republicans, moved by means of the group of O’Rourke supporters, handing out fliers to reporters till he was escorted away by a union consultant.

On the sidewalk, protesters waved a Trump flag and an American flag and shouted — “Free crack pipes!” “Communism doesn’t work, Francis!” — in an try and interrupt Mr. O’Rourke’s nighttime speech, calling him by his center identify. An promoting truck confirmed a black-and-white video of Mr. O’Rourke morphing into President Biden, which was paid for by Mr. Abbott’s marketing campaign.

A lot of Mr. O’Rourke’s supporters recalled dropping energy final 12 months. However their anger on the dealing with of the freeze wasn’t the one problem that drew them to the rally.

Nick Tripoli, 43, wore a masks with the phrases “Abort Greg Abbott” throughout it. He mentioned he had heard Mr. O’Rourke communicate in 2018 and had seen the keenness he delivered to Democrats.

“I wished to be part of it,” Mr. Tripoli mentioned. “Once more.”