Democratic nominee Beto O’Rourke made a campaign stop in Pearland for a town hall. Abortion rights and last February’s freeze vied for center stage in O’Rourke’s speech.
“We like everything he stands for, everything that’s going on with the women’s rights, we’re really unhappy with what Abbott’s doing with our state and it’s so refreshing to see Beto come out here and talk about those things, immigrant rights, public education,” said Yoon Park, who had brought her two daughters, aged 9 and 7, to hear O’Rourke speak.With six months to go until election day, Texas’ gubernatorial candidates are making the rounds.
“ was not an act of God or mother nature,” O’Rourke said to the filled auditorium. “It was the cruelty, corruption and incompetence of that person in power, who could not guarantee that the power would flow to the people when they needed it the most.”, O’Rourke had accused Abbott of giving natural gas companies a loophole to avoid weatherization, which resulted in the power failure.
During his time on stage, U.S. Rep. Al Green credited O’Rourke for the recent blue wave in Harris and Fort Bend counties, leading the audience in a chorus of “Fort Bend Blue in ’22.”for years by the ,” Green said. “Women have not been treated fairly. Some people think they have the power to control women. You cannot control women; women are their own source of power.”
“But we can overcome it because we have before, against greater odds,” O’Rourke said. “Prior to 1973 abortion was illegal in Texas just like they want to do it again under Greg Abbott. But no one rode to our rescue from the outside. Nobody saved the day for the state of Texas. It was actually Texas women. Jane Roe of Roe vs. Wade was a Texan and so were both her attorneys. They pled her case and prevailed.
O’Rourke praised the state’s teachers, librarians, counselors and nurses for going out of their way to help children after they lost family members to COVID or changed schools due to a parent’s job loss. “Seven million eligible voters in 2020 did not cast a ballot in the state of Texas, not for lack of love of democracy, not because we’re lazy, but because we were drawn that way by those in positions of power,” said O’Rourke. “Right now, the only way to overcome this is by going out and meeting those seven million at their doors.”“I’m supporting Beto for governor because he’s not Greg Abbott,” said Pearland resident Alicia Addison. “He supports women’s rights to choose.