Thank you so much for taking
some time to talk with us.
Absolutely. I'm happy to.
Yeah, we're in the home stretch.
How are you feeling
heading into Election Day?
I feel good.
We, we just came in from Houston.
We're at TSU and University of Houston.
We're here in Austin,
which will probably be the last
time I get to be here and really
kind of feeling overwhelmed with
gratitude for the way that we've
been supported in this community.
Every time we've showed up,
people have turned out.
I was seeing pictures from outside of
University of Texas at Austin today.
People in line 2 hours deep in order to cast.
That ballot.
So, you know,
everything's on the line in this election.
A woman's right to choose,
a kid's right to survive the school year
without being shot in their classroom.
You know,
our right to come together as a people,
as a state, without being defined
and divided by our our differences.
And we want to make sure that we win.
And the people in Austin are doing
the work to make sure that we win.
So I feel really good coming back here.
From the polls to the fundraising,
this has been a tight race for you,
but it cannot be lost on you.
The fact that a Democrat has
not won a statewide election
in Texas in almost 30 years,
what is it going to take for a
Democrat to win a seat here?
We've got to bring out the people
that we haven't heard from yet,
whose votes haven't been counted,
whose voices haven't been heard,
the very people who are the targets of
voter suppression and voter intimidation.
If we can bring them out,
they're the majority that's out there.
That would never stand
for a total abortion ban,
without exception for rape or incest
or a grid failure in the middle of
the energy capital of the world,
or this exodus of teacher talent that
we're seeing from our schools right now.
But they've been the targets of
this effort to disenfranchise our
fellow Texans by the 1,000,000.
So our campaign is all about
knocking on their doors,
bringing them in and making
sure that they vote.
When they vote, we win.
And so far,
what we're seeing as we look at
turnout around the state and
the people who are turning out.
For the first time in their
lives is very encouraging.
Yeah. The message then,
you feel resonating with those
folks? Absolutely. And and it's
also helped by our current governor.
I mean, after eight years of Greg Abbott,
you have some of the highest
property taxes in the country,
some of the highest utility bills anywhere.
You have him as the major
driver of inflation, homicides,
up 50% after he ignored advice
from law enforcement and signed
permitless carry into law.
We lead the nation in school shootings,
gun violence, the leading cause of
death for children and teenagers.
None of us. Are OK with this and
all of us want some kind of change.
And those who will be
voting in this election,
either they voted early or they'll
vote Tuesday on Election Day.
I believe they're going
to be voting for change.
You know, Governor Greg Abbott
has spent his time painting
you as being wrong for Texas,
attacking some of your policies
and chief among them the border,
saying that you want open borders.
He's spreading. You know that,
that sort of message about your policy.
What do you say to that?
It's interesting.
He's been the governor of the
state of Texas. For eight years.
So what we have on the border right now,
these stunts of bussing migrants
to Washington or Chicago,
more encounters at the border after
Operation Lone Star and $4 billion
of tech Texas taxpayer money spent
than before Operation Lone Star.
This this is all on on him.
What I want to do as a resident
of the border,
who with my wife Amy is raising
our three kids on the border,
is to make sure that we have solutions.
Things like a Texas based guest
worker program so that if you want
to come to this country you've got
to follow the law and our laws
are going to follow our values,
our interests and our economic needs as well.
We are a state of immigrants.
We understand this issue better
than anyone else.
It's time that we started to
lead on it and when we vote for
change on November 8th,
we'll have somebody who will lead on it.
You know, one of the other.
Things he's doing throughout this
campaign and some of the ads is just
aligning you with President Joe Biden,
saying that your stances are his stances.
What's your messages to Texans who
may not be fans of the president?
I'm all about Texas.
And so whether you voted for
Trump or whether you voted for
Joe Biden doesn't matter to me.
No, me importa.
What matters most is that you're
here right now in this state,
and we have a chance to work
together to make sure that we have
the best public schools in America,
that we expand Medicaid so you
can afford to see a doctor fill
a prescription or take your
kiddo to a therapist.
We want the best jobs in America created
right here in the state of Texas,
and we want to restore every woman's
right to make her own decisions about
her own body and her own future.
On that much,
the people of Texas,
regardless of who they like for president,
can agree.
And that's the way I'm going to bring
this deeply divided state to make
sure that we do things that are big,
that are in our common interests
and that are found on the common
ground right in front of us
throughout your campaign and even just now,
you're talking about some of the
things that you want to do if you
are elected governor of this state.
The reality is the way that the maps
were drawn in the past legislative
session that passed special session,
the House and the Senate are both suspected.
Are you expected to remain red?
How are you gonna get your agenda passed?
How are you gonna get those things done?
If you don't have the house and the
Senate, you. My whole life I've,
I've sought out that ability to
find common ground with people who
I might not otherwise agree on as
a small business owner in El Paso,
or a member of the City Council,
or a member of the minority
in Congress for six years.
I got a lot of legislative lot of
legislation passed only because I
was able to find that Republican who
could find common ground with me.
I even got some of those bills
signed by Donald Trump into law.
I don't agree with him on much,
but on issues of veterans.
For preserving protected public lands,
we could find some common ground there.
So I plan to do that with Republicans
and Democrats in the legislature.
And I'm going to begin with the
things that we actually agree on.
World class public Schools,
Medicaid expansion and investment in
our communities so we attract better
and higher paying jobs to Texas.
What's the top priority though,
if you become governor?
After eight years of of Abbott there,
there are so many.
I mean, we've got to fix this grid
before we go into the next winter.
It's it's not ready for the next
time temperatures plunge in Texas.
We've got to up teacher pay or we're
going to continue to lose educators
by the thousands across the state,
as we have been for the last two years,
we must get Republicans and Democrats
around the table to reduce gun violence.
We lead the nation in the
number of school shootings.
Amy and I are raising three kids in El Paso.
I talked to parents across this state.
No one is OK.
With this status quo and so raising the
minimum age of purchase to 21 for an AR15,
or implementing a red flag law
or universal background check,
I think we can get people around
the table to agree on that much.
That would be a great start for
us as we move on to some of these
bigger things like expanding
Medicaid in the state of Texas,
making marijuana legal and doing
other things are going to be in
the best interests of every Texan.
Wednesday morning when you wake up.
What is Beto O'Rourke doing? I'm smiling. I
know that over the last year, we,
everybody who's been part of this campaign,
all the volunteers out there
knocking on doors, the candidate,
the team that travels with me and everyone
else have done all that they possibly
could to bring home this victory for Texas.
And we'll be able to celebrate
something absolutely historic.
It's been 32 years since the last time
a Democrat was elected to this office.
It happens to have been one of the
best of all time, Ann Richards,
and we're going to get back to her.
The idea of letting the people in,
making sure this government truly
represents and reflects the people
that it is supposed to serve,
that's why I'm running.
That's why I'll be so excited when we win.
And it's why I'm so grateful for the
people of this community and across the
state for supporting us in this campaign.
You know, I have to ask you if the
the election goes the other way.
That there, there really is
no alternative right now given
the challenges that we face,
what our kids are counting
on us to do right now.
We have got to win,
and with four big days left to
us until this thing is decided,
that's all I'm focused on.
Getting those people out to vote,
though, Democrats have not
traditionally been big in terms of
voting on statewide elections. You
know, it's just that one of our great
historically black colleges in Houston
at TSU, people were fired up to vote
there at the University of Houston.
Today at the University of Texas at Austin,
the the line wrapped around
the Block 2 hours deep.
So folks are getting after it.
They, they, they sense,
they feel the urgency of this moment.
They know that history is calling
and we have got to come through.
You know, we cannot be found wanting.
Not only is it for our generation,
but it's for those who follow us,
our kids and grandkids down the line.
They don't get a vote or
a voice in this election.
But through the actions
that we take right now,
that'll be my message over the next
four days as we come into November 8th,
where I will be traveling the
entire state on that day,
coming back to El Paso to celebrate
this campaign and our victory and to
thank everybody who made it possible.
Thank you. Appreciate it.