Campaigns May Differ; Goals Remain Same

Early voting is up nearly 70% in El Paso County for Democrats, while Republican voting is down.

Two years ago, after eight days of early voting, roughly 11,000 people voting Democrat went to the polls and cast a vote. This year that number has spiked to more than 16,000.

The early voting is being sold as a good thing by both the Silvestre Reyes campaign and his presumed main challenger, Beto O’Rourke.

“This vote could come down to just a few votes,” said O’Rourke.

Silvestre Reyes, after eight terms in office, sells his legacy as a good thing, pointing out that his tenure makes it easier for him to bring big bucks to El Paso. O’Rourke sells Reyes’ experience as a sign that he hasn’t done enough.

“I think we have the vote across the board,” said Reyes, responding to O’Rourke’s claim that he’s collecting the youth vote to drive his campaign. “I think that’s a direct result of the work I’ve done for 15 years.”

Traditionally, young people who are eligible to vote don’t. O’Rourke has taken a gamble on selling himself to young people more than any candidate of recent memory. He’s campaigned in Marfa during an “At the Drive-In” show; showed up for debates at multiple colleges; and made social media an important aspect of his bid for Congressman Reyes’ seat.

“We’re taking a gamble, that is we talk to these kids at community colleges, at the University of Texas El Paso, at the ‘Drive-In’ show, at Tricky Falls downtown and tell them what is at stake, they’ll make the decision to go out and vote,” said O’Rourke.

O’Rourke’s campaign is by no means traditional. His campaign headquarters are located downtown near Union Plaza, and is a bare-bones flat filled with folding chairs and tables. His staffers, most of whom are volunteers, work on their personal computers and cellphones while the bulk of his money is spent on data and a presence on social media.

Across town, at Reyes’ campaign headquarters, things look different. His office is filled with students and volunteers, but the space looks like an assembly line. Hands fly across the table, stapling together paperwork that will be pushed quickly on the street to remind people identified by Austin data companies as potential pro-Reyes voters.

His phone bank has more than three times the amount of people working as O’Rourke, and each is fitted with a headset and a computer.

Reyes doesn’t doubt for a second that he too has the young persons’ vote.

“They’re smart, they get it, they know it’s under threat when you send someone to Congress that has a pretty sketchy record in terms of his record at city council,” said Reyes.

Adding fuel to this race is the new amount of campaign spending by a bi-partisan super PAC built to oust incumbents called the Campaign for Primary Accountability. The group initially spent $95,000 airing television commercials against Silvestre Reyes, bashing his tenure in Congress and accusing him of wrongfully spending $600,000 on reimbursements to his own family. This week it’s pledged another $100,000 to its anti-Reyes campaign in hopes he’ll fall out of favor.

Reyes said the wave of money undermines democracy and allows wealthy individuals to sway voters with accusatory statements that aren’t true.

“They pour in a couple hundred of thousands of dollars and try to undermine the votes of the people that I represent,” said Reyes.

The group has not publicly supported O’Rourke, and its ads never mention him by name. However, the Reyes campaign connected the dots between the super PAC and O’Rourke when the ads first aired. O’Rourke has denied any connection and points out that no money has been given to him.

“I don’t know what kind of a roll outside money is going to play in this race. I’m focused on thing that I can contro, like meeting voters, calling them at home, and talking with them before they make it to the polls and make their decision,” said O’Rourke.

Three other men are also vying for the district 16 Congressional seat. Jerome Tilghman, Ben Mendoza, and Paul Johnson have continued their runs during this democratic primary.