-For our sake, would you say how you say your name?
-Sure. -Because.
-Yeah, it's. -People call you different,
[laughing] by different names.
-So, Beto ["Beh-toe"], B-e-t-o.
Last name: O'Rourke, O'R-o-u-r-k-e.
I'm a member of Congress,
representing the 16th congressional district of Texas.
I'm running to represent everyone in Texas
in the United States Senate.
♪ Mi amigo Beto O'Rourke Se acaba de apostular ♪
-Visiting all 254 counties.
Everyone is heard and listened to and fought for.
♪ Beto ♪
-This point in history could not be more critical.
All of us have to come together.
And get after the big, ambitious aspirational goals
that we have as a people.
-You know, you got Ted Cruz versus Beto.
I mean, who you gonna pick, the cool one or the creepy guy?
-I don't know if Jesus can get elected,
runnin' as a Democrat in Texas.
-Bayto and his ilk,
they are of the ideology of destruction and death.
There's no question.
Socialism's evil.
-Keep the government small and out of our lives
and that's not gonna happen with Robert.
♪ Vamos a votar por Beto ♪
-So I was born Robert Francis O'Rourke,
but, in El Paso, if you're born Robert or Albert or Umberto,
if your name ends in -berto, you are called Beto.
It's just a nickname.
And my parents called me
Beto from the very beginning and it just stuck, obviously.
No one in Texas, probably, knew who I was a year ago,
but, Amy and I knew
that we had to do everything within our power
to make sure that we make this a better place
and that we meet the challenge, you know,
walls or Muslim bans or press is the enemy of the people
or just, you know, diminishing any dignity left
in national service and public life.
We had to be part of the solution.
I don't know if there are enough Democrats to do this.
It's gotta be about people.
I don't have a pollster, so I don't know how this stuff
looks from the perspective of a poll,
but, it sure does feel right to me.
We used to be the indispensable nation.
Now, we're the nation that is left out of leadership.
-Texas, in 2018, is at the, you know, what some might see
as the plateau of,
you know, more than two decades of solid Republican rule.
The Democrats have been about as low as a political party can be.
Democrats have no leverage.
You put those things together and it just doesn't give them
very many tools for reaching into the electorate
and ginning up the kind of turnout,
including among Latinos,
that they vitally need to begin to claw
their way out of the hole they're in,
and that hole is a deep one.
♪ I've worn holes in both my boots ♪
♪ I got a guitar I'm pullin' loose ♪
-We're in Texas and we're conservatives here in Texas.
We're Republicans and that's all she wrote.
-There are some who embrace a big-government,
liberal vision of higher taxes, more regulation, more Obamacare,
more debt, more government, less freedom.
There are some who think
the most important thing government can do
is provide sanctuary cities and open borders
and welcome people to violate our laws.
But you know what?
That ain't Texas.
Texas values who we are, as Texans.
-All right, everybody share this.
Beto O'Rourke is on a skateboard in a Whataburger parking lot.
I don't know if it gets more Beto.
♪ Will the circle ♪
♪ Be unbroken? By and by, Lord ♪
-Let's see if we can get this workin'.
-There's no two ways around the fact that.
-Look at that! -He starts
at a significant disadvantage
because his name recognition is low.
Given that, he's done a pretty good job.
-It's a short bike ride.
-Finding creative ways to create buzz and
to become more well-known.
But he's still got work to do. -Oh, wait, wait!
We are here today in the 254th county.
[indistinct]. See down the road?
Is it? -That'll work, yeah.
-Like that? -You're good.
-Right in the middle. -Unh-unh!
-Just kidding. -No, you're good.
-How are you taking that persona on, or are you, when people.
-Yeah. -Are sort of, you know,
you're this, you know, rock star, celebrity guy now?
-Yeah.
No, I'm really not and I think what is exciting to people
is less me and more what's goin' on in Texas right now.
And the fact that, for so many, these are such dark times
and there's such profound disappointment
in some of the things that this country is doing.
And that there's gonna be such a positive,
powerful, strong, answer to that and it's gonna be Texas.
-We're gonna send you out to go knock on doors.
Everybody's individual goal is to knock on 50 doors today.
-Um, I'm sometimes cautious of the sign.
It's a very unique area because it's a Democratic area,
but not a lot of people vote here.
My name is Stephanie Corte.
I'm originally from El Paso,
but my home, now, is McAllen, Texas.
This is what matters.
You know, not just Beto, but politics, in general,
I think young people need to get involved.
This is what changes people's lives in this country,
in a larger scale.
There are many things that I could be doing,
but I think, if I could help get good candidates elected,
that changes generations and generations.
Okay.
614.
-The Latino population has been increasing.
-Hola.
-At a much faster rate than any of the other,
you know, major demographic groups.
Latinos are, you know, just over 38% of the overall population.
They vote at a much lower rate and Democrats
have been trying to do something about that
for as long as this been recognized
and have been failing at it for just as long.
I think you have to make sure that you have a presence
in the urban areas where your voters are,
but you've gotta go to some frontier areas
and you've gotta find some new votes.
-Beto O'Rourke, the Hippie Life! He's Beto O'Rourke.
Bring 'im out. Let's go!
-We've gotta get our senses back in this country.
We have to stop spending so foolishly.
We have to stop this president from committing $30 billion
to build a wall that we don't need
at a time of record-low apprehensions with Mexico,
record safety in our communities along the border.
I wanna make sure that this state,
the most diverse state in the country,
the defining immigrant story and experience,
leads the way in rewriting our immigration laws
to look like you.
-I voted for Ted Cruz last time, when he ran,
but he's so far to the right that we don't need far-right.
We don't need far-left.
We need people to meet in the middle and get something done.
I hope that there are Republicans and Democrats
and independents and nonvoters, alike, in the room today.
-The least amount government has anything to do with me
and my life, the better off I am.
So, tell me what you can do for me.
Earn my vote. -Yes, sir.
Thank you for being here, first of all.
I will face those who put me
into this position of public trust
and I know that I will have to account
for every vote that I have taken,
my progress or lack of progress on the legislation
that we are working on together.
We can be a lot more efficient, a lot more effective,
with the resources and the treasure of this country.
And I wanna be the leader in this state
who works with Republicans and Democrats,
alike, to make sure that we do that.
So thank you for the question, sir.
Very grateful.
-What I wanted to hear from him
is why I should support him, as a strong conservative,
and the answers I heard today pretty much satisfied me
that I think he would represent me in Congress as a Texan,
as a conservative Texan,
and not necessarily toe the Democratic Party line.
And that's what I really wanted to hear out of
'im and I think I did.
-The national image of Texas as, you know,
full of cowboys and farms,
has not been true for a long time.
The state is a substantially urbanized place with, you know,
major cities, you know, Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth area,
in the top metro areas in the country,
yet, the state is characterized by these very large, suburban
and exurban areas that are dominated by Republican voters,
who vote in much larger numbers than Democrats.
-Welcome to the first Texas Senate debate.
-Turning people against the police.
-Senator, please. -I think
that's profoundly irresponsible. -That's your time.
-This is why people don't like Washington, DC.
You've just said something that I did not say.
-What did you not say? -And attributed it to me.
-What did you not say? -I'm not gonna repeat.
-Audience. -I'm not going to repeat
the slander and the mischaracterization.
-Please, please let us. -He also grounded his answer
in partisanship,
talkin' about the GOP being better than the Democrats.
Listen, I could care less about either party,
at this moment, this deeply divided,
highly polarized time in our history.
-Congressman O'Rourke agrees with Hillary Clinton.
He wants liberal judicial activists on the court,
who will impose their particular policy.
He's voted in favor of the death tax,
keeping it broad, sucking farmers and ranchers
and small businesses into it.
Bernie Sanders believes in what he's fighting for.
He believes in socialism.
Now, I think what he's fighting for doesn't work,
but I think you are absolutely sincere, like Bernie,
that you believe in expanding government and higher taxes
and I commend you for fighting for what you believe in.
As you noted, we disagree on the outcome,
but you're fighting for the principals you believe in.
-Yeah. -And I respect that.
-True to form.
-I think, in Texas, it's gonna be leaning more toward Ted Cruz
when the election actually rolls around.
You know, I think Bayto is amazing onstage.
He's great with people, but the fact of the matter is that
Ted Cruz's policies just have more support from Texas voters.
-I think that's definitely the case.
People in Texas are seeing the benefits of tax cuts
and of the economic growth that we had seen here
and I think they really are concerned with policy
and I think personal appeal is certainly important,
but, people do care about the issues here.
♪ Here in America Here in America ♪
♪ Oh oh oh In God we still trust ♪
-You know, one of Cruz's major assets
is that he's now done this before a couple o' times.
And running statewide in Texas, like covering Texas
[laughing] politics, is hard.
You have to have a lot of different tones
because the different parts of the state
are so different and so disparate.
-There was a classic moment in the debate last night
where Bayto said,
"I support the Second Amendment".
-Really?
-I think I literally laughed out loud.
I'm like, "Really?
When"?
Among other things,
Bayto O'Rourke enthusiastically supported Hillary Clinton.
Well, here's the good news: This is Texas
and there are a whole lot more conservatives
than there are liberals in the state of Texas.
-We're strong believers in prayer
and we believe that God has it.
-I see lots of Beto signs around the city.
Beto's made a big splash.
Beto looks good, sounds good.
But, as far as I'm concerned,
Beto's not really in favor of liberty.
He's in favor of control.
-You want him right here? Tell me.
-Just perfect. -We have a race here.
There's no doubt about it.
And I think the reason is the hard left,
the extreme left, they're angry.
They are energized and many of them hate President Trump.
That energy, that anger, is potent.
It's dangerous. It's resulting in tens
of millions of dollars flooding into this state.
-We haven't seen a campaign like this in Texas
in a very long time
and to have a campaign without a dime from a single PAC
or corporation or special interest
is exactly what this country needs: the leadership of Texas.
-I wasn't registered to vote, actually.
I just registered like last week, so.
I did it so I could vote for him.
-I think he's got the rare combination
of vast knowledge, courage, and compassion.
-There's just that spark of difference and it's not like
a normal politician that's just out there
to get elected and stay forever.
He really cares.
-Thank you all for being here. -If you go to one of his events,
I mean, you can't help
but see that there's something going on there.
That's been clear from the beginning,
but whether that something is really enough to change
the underlying fundamentals, I think, is still unclear.
The math works for Cruz, but, if you look at,
even if you start assuming increases in voter turnout
and natural population growth,
the baseline kinds gap you're looking at
is about 900,000 votes.
You know, it's a lotta votes to make up in one election,
even if you have a ton of money and a charismatic candidate.
-I don't always wanna do this. I try to do this every morning
that I'm here in El Paso.
We're in a race right now and it's a bear
and this entire race has been, you know, uphill,
but there are, you know, there's just a lot of us
doing this together, which just makes it wonderful, so.
I like it. I like the challenge.
You ready to go home?
Yeah.