ALAMO — With gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke yet to return to the campaign trail following a bacterial infection, other Democratic candidates took the helm here to fire up support for the party.
Democratic candidates in key races urged the crowd gathered at the Railyard 83 Icehouse to convince friends and family members to vote in the November midterm elections in which many local figures are in tight races.
Among them is Democrat Rochelle Garza who is facing off against Texas Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton, a Republican, in the November election.
Garza, of Brownsville, framed her candidacy as a fight to protect families.
“We need to start voting like our families are under attack because they absolutely are,” she said, mentioning the indictment against Paxton on charges of felony securities fraud and the lawsuit filed against him by the State Bar of Texas for attempting to overturn the 2020 election in favor of Donald Trump.
“It’s time that we have a people’s lawyer in the attorney general’s office,” she said.
Vowing to fight for voting and reproductive rights, she stressed the importance of getting as many people as possible out to the polls.
“Everyone needs to vote,” she said. “Everyone is saying that here, and I will reiterate that — it is absolutely critical that we get people to vote. There is no excuse not to.”
U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who is running for congress in District 34, and Michelle Vallejo, who is running for Gonzalez’s current seat in District 15, also took the stage Thursday.
Vallejo is currently running in one of the most closely-watched races in the country against Republican Monica De La Cruz.
Vallejo referred to De La Cruz, who has been endorsed by Trump, as a radical Republican and an extremist.
“(She) tried to paint our home as if it’s chaos and overtaken by cartels — that’s not our home. That is not where we live and I’m so sick and tired of our mass media representing us that way.”
Gonzalez reiterated the importance of getting friends and family to vote, saying that was the only way Democrats were going to win.
“Those are the ones we need to get out — the least likely,” he said.
He also pointed to the outside corporations that were pouring millions of dollars to support Republican candidates in the region.
“When the values of our community are being ripped off by millions of dollars of corporate money that’s coming down here that’s representing the Republican party,” Gonzalez said, “it’s up to us to do it. Nobody’s going to come here.
“We’re going to get outspent, but we’re not going to get outworked,” he said.
