Graham, TX — During a town hall meeting Thursday in Graham, Texas, Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said he believes Americans need to stop being afraid of each other and have a conversation on how to make the country a better place.
“I would love this country to get off of the fear, and the paranoia, and the anxiety. The small stuff of building walls or banning muslims or calling the press the enemy of the people. Of siding with foreign dictators over this country, our fellow Americans and our democracy and get on to the big common work that we want to do to make this country better,” he commented.
“At a time when this country has never been more divided, more polarized, more tribal, we need to come together and find out what we are going to do together.”
O’Rourke told the audience that whether or not they have decided to vote for him or Senator Ted Cruz in the upcoming November general election, “you are in the right place because we desperately need to have this conversation.”
New polling numbers released by Quinnipiac University on Wednesday said Cruz is ahead of O’Rourke by 6 points, showing the senator at 49 percent and O’Rourke at 43 percent.
O’Rourke supporter and Graham resident Linda Neil said she will vote for him in November because of his positive outlook.
“He knocked my socks off. He’s so positive, he doesn’t say anything negative about anything or anybody. He just speaks positively. That’s what I really loved about him, because he’s so positive. He feels like he can bring us all together and he has great ideas.”
When asked her opinion of O’Rourke’s opponent, Neil said “I’m going to go the Beto route and not say anything bad about anybody.”
Graham resident Osbaldo Riverasaid he supports O’Rourke because he is a Democrat and he agrees with his stance on immigration.
“I love his immigration policy, I’m a Hispanic first and so that’s very important to me.”
Ruby Jimenez-Martinez echoed Rivera’s comments, stating that what drew her to O’Rourke were his immigration policies.
“I think that’s very important, especially. He really voiced his concerns about whenever, you know, the family separations and stuff like that, he was right there. That was very important for me. Something you don’t see anybody else talk about as passionately as he does.”
Jimenez-Martinez said she feels Cruz is a “hypocrite” and said she doesn’t think he is able to relate to the Hispanic community.
“The fact that he comes from Cuba, I think it’s very hypocritical that he feels that maybe just people from there deserved… whenever they used to get here they would automatically get refugee status or whatever, I feel that’s kind of hypocritical that he wouldn’t… he doesn’t relate that to like people from other Hispanic countries.”
Mineral Wells resident, Larry Lee said “We came from a Democratic family. We were raised up that way. I believe in their outlook on things and all the programs that they’ve got, not all the programs, but most of the programs I grew up knowing. What’s going on right now in our government is pretty sickening.”
In response to a question on his feelings about Cruz, Lee said he does not agree with the senator’s policies regarding the border and immigration.
“If a man will take what he did from Donald Trump and then go back and hug his neck, so to speak, you know he’s not much of a man personally, but then I don’t approve of his thoughts on our border, and on the immigration policies and things, I don’t approve,” Lee concluded.
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