AUSTIN, Texas —Speaking from atop a large black trunk near the South steps of the Texas Capitol on Sunday, Beto O'Rourke lambasted Republican lawmakers for their latest efforts to rewrite the state's election laws and urged those gathered in attendance to "fight on every front" to secure the right to vote for all.
“This is what democracy looks like and this is what fighting for democracy feels like,” O’Rourke said, closing out an evening of speeches from Democratic elected officials and activists on voting rights.
“It’s hot, it’s sweaty, it’s tough, it’s loud and it’s no accident that we held this rally for American democracy right here in Texas on the longest day of the year," he continued. "It is going to take every waking moment from every single one of us to see this through, but I have faith and confidence in every single one of us.
“We are the people that this country has been waiting for, right here in the great state of Texas.”
O'Rourke, a former congressman and presidential candidate from El Paso, has been crisscrossing the state as part of a speaking tour dubbed: "For the People: The Texas Drive For Democracy," holding events in different corners of the state.
Sunday's rally also featured remarks from Julián Castro, another 2020 presidential candidate; U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin; several state lawmakers and Luci Baines Johnson, daughter of President Lyndon Baines Johnson.
Texas Democrats have been working to maintain momentum on voting rights issues since the end of this year's legislative session, when House Democrats busted quorum in the final hours of the session to kill a GOP elections bill. The same members met recently with party leaders in Washington to discuss the walkout and show support for national leaders working to pass their own voting rights measure.
In her remarks, Johnson said her father would be proud of their efforts to block the legislation.
“Today I can’t be with my father, who is in heaven, I firmly believe," she said. "I know that he is up there applauding every one of you for being here and especially applauding the Texas legislators who stood up for democracy and refused to deny the vote to all of our people.”
Special session
Gov. Greg Abbott said he plans to call at least two special legislative sessions later this year, the first to tackle the GOP elections bill and other conservative priorities that failed during the regular session and the second to complete the regularly scheduled redistricting process, where lawmakers redraw the state's political maps.
During the rally, O'Rourke urged the more than 1,500 people gathered at the Capitol to call their representatives in the Texas legislature ahead of the looming special session.
"Tell them you do not want them tampering with our elections, subverting our democracy or suppressing the right to vote," O'Rourke said. "And tell those brave men and women who are here with us now that you have their back for the distance for as long as it takes for whatever they need to do to make sure that they make Texas proud."
Abbott has yet to formally order the first 30-day special session, but he promised that the agenda will include the elections bill and other conservative priorities that were unsuccessful in the regular session, including a bill to limit bail opportunities for violent and sex-related crimes and a measure to limit how race can be discussed in Texas classrooms.
The agenda also will include funding for the legislative branch, after Abbott vetoed the portion of the state's two-year budget that pays salaries for the House, Senate and other agencies in retaliation for Democrats' walkout.
"Funding should not be provided for those who quit their job early," Abbott said in a Friday statement accompanying his veto.
If lawmakers do not approve a spending bill to fund Article X of the budget during the special session, budgets for legislative staffs, the Legislative Budget Board and other support agencies will be zeroed out on Sept. 1, when the next biennial budget goes into effect.
When asked about whether Democratic lawmakers should stage another walkout to kill the bill and risk jeopardizing funding for the legislative branch, O'Rourke said they "have to do whatever it takes to save democracy.
"The governor is showing his true colors right now," he said. "Instead of fixing the electricity grid, he's spending 250 million of our dollars on a solution in search of a problem with a wall on the border with Mexico. He is not a dictator, he is not a tyrant. He is a co-equal branch of government and he cannot deny the salaries and the funding for the legislative branch for the employees who work in this building and the people who serve us."
State Rep. Chris Turner of Grand Prairie, who serves as chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus, said his colleagues are "going to always have all of our options at a table" but that "it'd be incredibly premature to propose any possibilities right now or make any firm decision right now" about future action to block an elections bill.
"We're going to continue to oppose these anti-voter bills with everything we have," Turner said.
2022 campaign
While the focus of Sunday's rally and the earlier stops on his tour have been on voting rights, O'Rourke has also fielded questions about his political future going into 2022. He skyrocketed to national acclaim during his 2018 U.S. Senate campaign when he narrowly lost to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. His campaign was marked by similar speaking tours across Texas and a boast of having visited each of the state's 254 counties while on the campaign trail.
O'Rourke launched a presidential campaign the next year but suspended it months later. At the time, he faced pressure from some political operatives to run again for the Senate in Texas, but he declined to enter the race, instead returning to El Paso, where he campaigned on behalf of other Democrats running in the state.
But 2022 could be the year O'Rourke runs again in Texas, this time for a different statewide seat: governor.
In January, O'Rourke told a local radio station that he is considering challenging Abbott, and an aide told The Associated Press in May that he is still considering a campaign, although he had not taken any formal steps toward running at the time.
"I'm gonna see this fight through to the finish," O'Rourke said on Sunday, when asked about his future plans. "Once we do that, we can start thinking about other things. But this is the most important fight before us.”
Abbott is already facing one primary challenger going into his reelection campaign: former state Sen. Don Huffines of Dallas. Texas GOP Chairman Allen West is also considering challenging Abbott, announcing earlier this month that he will step down from his post leading the state party in July.
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