Reaching out to west Texas voters, Democrat senate candidate Beto O’Rourke scheduled a Lubbock rally for noon on Sunday.
Lubbock County Democratic Party officials sent out an announcement for the event earlier this week stating O’Rourke will meet with potential voters in a small venue called Tornado Gallery at noon on Sunday.
Local news radio host Chad Hasty mocked the Democrat Congressman’s timing for the rally by tweeting, “Apparently, @BetoORourke will be stopping in Lubbock for a rally Sunday at noon. Sunday at noon. That should tell you a lot.”
Timing is not the only challenge O’Rourke faces with Permian Basin and South Plains voters. The 44-year-old congressman from El Paso also has a lengthy anti-gun record. O’Rourke drew national attention in the summer of 2016 when he staged a live-streamed House Floor “sit-in” calling for stricter gun-control measures, a highly unpopular position for a potential statewide Texas politician, Breitbart Texas reported in March following the candidate’s announcement of his decision to run against Senator Ted Cruz in 2018.
Texas voters have never elected a U.S. Senator from El Paso.
While a recent Texas Lyceum poll showed the three-term representative in a virtual tie with Senator Cruz, his polling number of 30 percent represents the approximate size of the Texas Democrat base. Nearly 40 percent of Texas voters indicated they had not pondered a preference at the time of the survey.
During the representative’s campaign launch, O’Rourke told reporters he would not be hiring campaign consultants claiming he wanted to “remain true to his convictions,” the Texas Tribune reported. “My heart’s in it, I want to do this, I’m driven to do it. I’m not poll-testing it. I’m not consulting with consultants,” O’Rourke told the Dallas Morning News. However, a recently filed campaign finance report revealed the congressman’s convictions did not last as he has hired two campaign consulting firms, according to the Texas Tribune.
When challenged on the apparently false early campaign pledge, O’Rourke danced around the question and explained these consultants are just “vendors” to do “technical” portions of the campaign. He reiterated he would not be using them to test or dictate his messaging “in any capacity.” The reports show he paid these “vendors” just under $30,000 in the first quarter of his campaign.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.