Beto O’Rourke Fires Up his Grassroots Efforts in Texas

Although recent polling shows a clearly competitive political season ahead, Beto O’Rourke believes he can turn Texas blue in November. 

Democrats would heartily agree, but Republicans think the former presidential contender and U.S. Senate candidate is tilting at windmills.

“I think Texas is Biden’s to lose,” O’Rourke was recently quoted as saying.

A new University of Texas/Texas Politics Project Poll out today shows President Donald Trump would beat former Vice President Joe Biden by 4% in Texas if the election were held today. With a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83%, the poll mirrors other surveys that show it’s a tight race in The Lone Star State.

A win at the top of the ticket usually has a trickle-down effect for races further down the ballot, and that is where O’Rourke is focusing his efforts. 

O’Rourke’s political action committee is working to register 1.4 million Texans who have voted for Democrats in their former states. They have made more than 350,000 contacts. The effort targets Texas House districts O’Rourke won in his race against Texas Sen. Ted Cruz two years ago. 

“Now it’s time for voter contact calling,” O’Rourke told The Dallas Morning News. “We’re calling into those districts and confirming that they will be voting for the Democratic nominee.”

“I’m not concerned one iota about what Beto O’Rourke is doing,” said Dallas County Republican Party Chairman Rodney Anderson, a former state representative for Grand Prairie and Irving. “I’m no more concerned with O’Rourke than anything else the Democrats are doing.”

Republicans have their own effort underway to take back districts they lost two years ago.

O’Rourke launched his Powered by People grassroots organization after he left the Democratic presidential race. Due to the pandemic, all of the group’s contact with voters is occurring virtually. 

A recent Zoom conference featured 800 people making calls to potential new Texas voters. Volunteers ultimately made over 600,000 phone calls and sent 505,000 text messages, the Dallas Morning News reported.