Beto O’Rourke hosts Texas counter-rally to President Trump’s Dallas campaign event
Hundreds of supporters filled the Theatre in Grand Prairie for Beto O’Rourke’s “Rally Against Fear” on Thursday evening.
The Democratic presidential candidate hosted the event in response to President Donald Trump’s “Keep America Great” rally in Dallas.
After several speakers and musical acts, O’Rourke took the stage and greeted the crowd by saying “I love you! I love you more than I can say.”
O’Rourke started his remarks by reflecting on the tragedy in his home city of El Paso before moving on to the issues around immigration.
O’Rourke spoke of of what he said were numerous reasons that Americans should be fearful of Trump continuing as president.
“The generations that follow us are counting on us now at this moment,” he told the crowd.
It marked the second time this year O’Rourke has hosted a counter-rally to Turmp. He did the same thing in El Paso in February.
“We will show President Trump he doesn’t represent Texas–and he doesn’t represent America,” O’Rourke tweeted ahead of the start of Thursday night’s rally.
Judge Clay Jenkins energized the Grand Prarie crowd before O’Rourke took the stage, pointing to a poll that said O’Rourke would beat Trump by double digits if the election was held today.
O’Rourke is one of the 19 candidates competing to be the Democratic nominee in the 2020 Presidential election.
O’Rourke says he raised $4.5 million during the three-month period through September, outpacing his lackluster second-quarter total but still far less than he got at the whirlwind start of his 2020 campaign.
The former Texas congressman’s campaign says it saw donations soar after the last Democratic presidential debate in Houston, when O’Rourke declared, “Hell yes, we’re gonna take your AR-15, your AK-47.” That was a reference to a mandatory buyback of assault-style weapons that he’s proposed.
His totals were better than the $3.6 million O’Rourke raised during the second quarter.
They pale in comparison, however, to the $6-plus million O’Rourke took in during his campaign’s first 24 hours alone, on his way to collecting $9.4 million during the first quarter, which featured just 18 days of campaigning.
KVIA
