Midterms 2018: Win or lose, Beto O’Rourke has ushered in a progressive era for Texas politics

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Americans embarking on nationwide journeys to support progressive candidates in battleground states wouldn’t likely stop in Texas during any other campaign season — but something is clearly happening across the Lone Star state in 2018.

Julie and Tony Pierce have spent the month before the November elections on a “blue wave tour,” the couple tells The Independent, campaigning for Democrats across the country with their first stop arriving in the southern city of San Antonio. The retirees knocked on doors and phone banked for Beto O’Rourke, a Democratic El Paso congressman seeking to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Cruz in the US Senate.

“We’re travelling from here to Georgia to support Stacey Abrams, and then we’re going to Florida to support Andrew Gillum,” Mr Pierce says. “I really think Texas is on its way … This is the start of their story. The next generations are going to build from here, and maybe that’s the most inspiring part of all of this.”

Mr O’Rourke is within five points of Mr Cruz’s lead in the reliably red state, according to the latest polls, reflecting a surge of energy surrounding progressives across the country, including in regions typically believed to be Republican strongholds.

“In recent history, the polls have gotten a lot of races wrong,” the candidate told reporters after an outdoor rally at San Antonio’s Plaza Guadalupe, a local community art venue. “Everywhere we go, the reddest of places, the bluest of communities, people are turning out in record numbers. So, I don’t know that I’m ready to concede that we’re behind. I think this election is in play and as close as it gets.”

Along the campaign trail, Mr O’Rourke has sought to set himself apart from the national Democratic Party by avoiding discussion of political affiliations and attempting to focus on the issues that matter most for local voters, from immigration to healthcare.

“The overriding concern throughout Texas, big cities and small towns alike, Republicans and Democrats, is our ability to be well enough to do the things we’re intended to do in our lives,” he said at a recent rally.

Texas is the uninsured capital of the country, with more than 17 per cent of residents lacking healthcare insurance (the national average is just over 8 per cent). Mr O’Rourke has courted voters on either side of the political aisle by vowing to expand access across the state.

“I agree with a lot of his positions,” says Haley Smith, a San Antonio resident. “My mom is a resident alien currently, so it’s a strong issue in my family. But I’m also really concerned about our state’s healthcare issue, as I’m a nurse, and it’s very, very important to me that all people can have access.”

Still, Democrats like him and Gina Ortiz Jones — a congressional candidate in the 23rd district who would become the first Iraq war veteran, out lesbian and Filipina-American from Texas to serve in Congress if elected — face an uphill battle. In Texas, a Democrat has not been elected to statewide office since 1994.

For some voters in the region, being a down-ballot Republican is just as much a way of life as shooting guns and eating barbecue.

“It didn’t change my mind much,” says Julian Rogers, a Texas voter who says he attended a rally for Mr O’Rourke with an “open mind” but intends to vote for Mr Cruz. “I’m not the biggest Ted Cruz fan, but he has a lot of experience. I do think Beto is a respectable guy.”

But the message appears to be resounding with typical non-voters and the state’s large Hispanic population, many of whom are seeking a change in the current political discourse.

“I was really taken by the unity,” says Joanne Sylvania. “And the fact that several times he said: ‘You can be Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever; let’s just work for the nation.'”

At the same time, he hasn’t shied away from defending the progressive stances he’s taken on issues generally considered too taboo to discuss in Texas politics, from abortions to impeaching Donald Trump.

Mr Cruz has accused his opponent of being the only senatorial candidate across the country to publicly support the president’s impeachment, while aligning him with “extreme” Democrats who allegedly want open borders.

“The people of Texas, and I will say, especially the Hispanic community, we don’t want to see taxpayer-funded, Medicaid-funded abortions,” Mr Cruz said during an October debate in San Antonio.

With less than two weeks until the historic election, analysts say the Texas Senate seat is anybody’s game, and its fate will likely rely on typical non-voters and Hispanics.

Meanwhile, Mr O’Rourke has broken national fundraising records in the latest three-month period, vowing to spend the whopping $38m entirely on his own race, rather than sharing some of the cash flow with other Democrats in the region.

“If they want to contribute to someone else, they should do so,” he told reporters. “If they want to contribute to a campaign that’s going to win this historic victory for Texas and the country, then I’m grateful for the contribution and I’m going to make the most of it, so that’s what we’re focused on.”

Voter rolls across the state have grown to over 15.6m, fuelled by a record-breaking level of registrations after the 2018 primaries, while Mr O’Rourke leads among Hispanic voters against Mr Cruz, who maintains just one-third of the demographic’s support for re-election.

Win or lose, the wave of energy that has swept over new voters in Texas won’t end with Mr O’Rourke. After 2018, there simply is no turning back.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen with Beto,” Mr Pierce admits. “He’s certainly young and articulate enough to do who knows what, but I think what’s more than that is he and others around the country — him, Stacey, Andrew and others — have created a national dialogue and woken a lot of people up.”