McALLEN — If Beto O’Rourke’s visit to the Lark Community Center polling place Monday proved anything, it’s that political tensions are high in Hidalgo County.
O’Rourke, who is running as a Democrat against Gov. Greg Abbott, dropped by the voting site as part of a whirlwind Rio Grande Valley tour, on the heels of stops in Edinburg, Weslaco and San Juan. He was joined by a variety of Democratic politicians, among them Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez and 15th Congressional District candidate Michelle Vallejo.
At Lark, O’Rourke was met by about 100 supporters and a smaller group of Republicans, many of whom seemed most concerned with having the opportunity to heckle the Democratic candidate.
The two crowds stood on opposite sides of a road in the parking lot with a beleaguered code enforcement officer between them, who mostly walked back and forth trying to prevent people from using speakers and makeshift megaphones. At one point someone on the Republican side threatened to call the mayor and complain about him.
That side chanted more and tended toward the incendiary. Their chants included “Let’s go Brandon” and “No more Roe.”
“Beto’s a loser!” one kid shouted before another chant broke out.
O’Rourke’s supporters generally stuck to chants like “Si se Puede” and “My body, my choice.”
They did sometimes engage the opposition. “Where’s Greg?” one O’Rourke supporter yelled at the other side. The tension was underscored by a touch of Halloween festivity. Vallejo wore butterfly wings. Hidalgo County Republican Party Chair Adrienne Peña-Garza dressed as Superwoman. One O’Rourke supporter wore an Elvis suit, wielding a campaign sign cut out to look like a guitar.
Alejandro Gonzalez, an O’Rourke supporter from San Juan, took off his Halloween luchador mask after he arrived.
“There’s a lot of crazy people out there, I don’t want to get arrested,” he said.
Gonzalez said he supported O’Rourke because he feared Republicans would curtail religious liberties and restrict abortion. He wasn’t necessarily surprised by the polling site vitriol, given the competitiveness of some Valley races.
“It is very tense. Especially down here, it’s a battleground,” he said.
O’Rourke — a touch hoarse — seemed unbothered by the heckling and struck a conciliatory tone.
“We wanna come together. We even invite those folks to come be with us,” he told supporters, referring to his chanting detractors.
There was little new in O’Rourke’s stump speech. Among other things, he hit on health care, the economy, abortion rights, the power grid and legalizing marijuana.
“I guarantee you, those guys like to get high just as much as you do,” he said, pointing at the Republican crowd. The comment was a hit with his crowd.
Any attempt at finding common ground with the Republicans at the polling site seemed like a futile effort. Few — if any — listened to the speech.
“I couldn’t hear it, thank God,” Hilda DeShazo, Hidalgo County Republican Party Secretary, said. “We outshouted them, I think.”
Both O’Rourke and Abbott are paying attention to the Valley. Abbott was in the area stumping with Republicans last week and will be spending election night in McAllen.
DeShazo said she doubts O’Rourke’s Valley tour will win many voters to his side, calling the border, inflation and education key issues for Republican voters in the Valley.
“I think — what’s his name? Robert Francis is all wrong for Texas,” she said. “He’s all wrong for Texas. We don’t need him in Texas, we don’t want him in Texas. He needs to go back to wherever he came from. I think he would destroy the state — just all wrong for Texas.”
Cortez — the county judge who’s running for reelection as a Democrat against Abbott-endorsed Esmer Flores — said he was disappointed by the display. “This is what you find in grade school, not among adults,” he said. “But it is what it is, people are passionate.”
Cortez, who generally sticks to bread and butter issues rather than hot button politics, was ambivalent about what effect gubernatorial candidate visits will have on the region. He was more concerned over what impact a growing partisan divide may have.
“We’re our own worst enemy,” he said. “We keep telling people from the outside how bad we are.”
