Beto O'Rourke and Joe Kennedy visit Corpus Christi, inspire residents to go vote
Beto O' Rourke was welcomed with a standing ovation as he skateboarded across Del Mar College's Richardson Performance Hall stage Saturday.
Supporters shouted his name in unison as their cheers echoed throughout the hall.
"Thank you all for being here," O'Rourke said. "It's so good to be back."
The democratic candidate for U.S. Senate was joined by Massachusetts representative Joe Kennedy III, grand-nephew of President John F. Kennedy, for a campaign event in Corpus Christi.
In a Facebook live video, Kennedy is seen driving O'Rourke to the rally at Del Mar College where hundreds gathered to hear him speak.
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His campaign swing in the Coastal Bend comes before the final debate with Cruz on Tuesday in San Antonio and before his solo appearance at a town hall discussion in McAllen on Thursday night that will be carried live on CNN. Cruz declined an invitation to join the discussion.
More:Beto-Cruz Debates: How to watch Tuesday's debate in San Antonio
To pull off an upset, O’Rourke will need a strong turnout from Democrat-friendly South Texas and from the state’s heavily populated urban centers.
"We are back exactly where we want to be ...Corpus Christi, which is a city that has shown us so much love ...so kind, so warm, so welcoming," he said. "This is our sixth visit ...and we want to return and make sure everyone here knows we want to represent them ..."
"Republicans, Democrats, Independents ...no me importa (I don't care) everyone is important."
During the event, O'Rourke touched based on immigration policies, education, healthcare, "Dreamers," based on never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act that would have provided similar protections for young immigrants as DACA and why people should flock to the voting booths Nov. 6.
"You may have that Republican mom or that brother who hasn't voted in 22 years because he just thinks it doesn't matter anymore in a state that ranks 50th in voter turnout," he said. "...to them, I want to make sure I lay up with you ...with ten days to go before we start voting ...they should vote and they should vote with us."
Two recent polls — one of the New York Times and the other from Quinnipiac University — shows the Democrat training incumbent Republican Ted Cruz by 9 percentage points.
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The gap, which is wider than several early-campaign polls show a race as close as a couple of percentage points, comes despite O’Rourke’s proven prowess as a fundraiser, and his demonstrated ability to attract the attention of national figures, including Kennedy and such A-list entertainers as Stephen Colbert, Ellen DeGeneres and Julia Louis Dreyfus.
On Friday, O'Rourke announced on Twitter that the campaign raised a record-breaking $38.1 million in three months from 802,836 contributions.
Cruz said he raised more than $12 million during the same time period, a significant increase in campaign contributions ahead of the midterm elections but a far cry from O’Rourke’s latest haul.
More:Beto O'Rourke raises a whopping $38 million against Ted Cruz ahead of midterm elections
“It’s going to give us the resources we need to finish this campaign as strong as we possibly can and it’s more than three times the amount Ted Cruz raised, not just in his campaign, but all the affiliated political action committees that are contributing to his campaign,” O’Rourke said in the social media post.
“We are doing something absolutely historic, not just ensuring that we have the resources to run and to win, but to make sure that our democracy once again is powered by people and only people,” he said.
Red Wynn, 21, has been following the democratic nominee's campaign for more than two months.
He attended the event at Del Mar College in hopes of hearing more about what O'Rourke stands for.
"I've never been super politically active but lately I have been because of Beto," he said. "I always used to feel that if I voted blue it wouldn't really matter in a Republican county, but Beto has given me hope that we can really change things."
Jeanie Leonard, a retired Corpus Christi Independent School District teacher for more than 20 years, said she and her husband Alan, a U.S. Air Force Veteran who served during the end of the Vietnam War era, attended the event to hear what the democatic candidate had to say about education and veterans.
More:Ted Cruz vs. Beto O'Rourke: A campaign diary for Texas' Senate race
"Beto is definitely a champion for the public school system," Jeanie Leonard said. "His ideas for helping retired teachers working multiple jobs to make ends meet resonates with me and others ...there's not enough money even after the service I've given ...the 20 years of my life ...I am not making enough and I know he can help change that."
Alan Leonard said O'Rourke's stance on giving advantages to veterans who have served their country got his attention during the rally.
"It's a good idea that the government should come in to take care of their (veterans) problems quickly ...I got a lot of friends where its a major factor for them and I am glad he's wanting to do something to help because our needs have long been ignored," Alan Leonard said.
USA Today Network Austin Bureau reporter Madlin Mekelburg contributed to this report.
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