Candidates vie to be ‘the Texan’
Castro seeks to capitalize on debate boost; O’Rourke looks to reinvigorate his campaign
A triumphant Julian Castro barnstormed through Texas over the last four days on the heels of his best week yet on the presidential campaign trail with a bold declaration.
“A few months ago they were writing me up as the other Texan,” the former San Antonio mayor told supporters at a rally in Austin on Friday night. “But that’s no more. I am the Texan in this race.”
It was a similar message in Houston on Sunday as Castro frequently highlighted his debate performance, a subsequent surge in fundraising, and growing interest he’s feeling in his campaign nationwide. And before he spoke in Houston on Sunday, Castro found himself in high demand for the Sunday morning national talk show circuit, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” ABC’s “This Week” and CNN’s “State Of the Union.”
“This has been a great week,” Castro said later on Sunday at St. John’s United Methodist Church where he was speaking at an event organized by the Harris County Democratic Party. “I’m going to work hard to capitalize on this momentum . ... I don’t want to be a flash in the pan candidate.”
Castro, 44, served as San Antonio’s mayor from 2009 to 2014 and then become the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development during the final years of President Barack Obama’s tenure in the White House.
Castro’s big week has come partly at the expense of his fellow Texan, El Paso Democrat Be
to O’Rourke, who once was considered among the top contenders in the race but has slid in the polls and is now taking criticism for having a subpar debate performance on Wednesday in Miami.
Talking to reporters in Austin on Friday night, O’Rourke acknowledged he has “got to do a better job” trying to correct the record and manage a stage where nine other people are trying to talk over him.
Less than 24 hours before Castro arrived in Houston, O’Rourke was back, too, trying to reinvigorate his campaign. After hosting about 100 protesters outside of a detention camp in Houston for unaccompanied minors, O’Rourke attended a pair of private fundraisers and then addressed a bar in Uptown packed to capacity to hear him speak.
But unlike Castro, O’Rourke didn’t mention the debate once during his 24-minute speech to supporters at The West End - A Public House. Instead, for O’Rourke, 46, the moment included talking about how Houston had been at the center of his campaign for the U.S. Senate and has given him a much needed and familiar respite from two weeks on the road campaigning.
“This makes me feel so good,” O’Rourke said as chants of “Beto” reverberated off the walls from more than 150 people.
O’Rourke’s supporters like Houston resident Vanessa Burwell at The West End acknowledge he didn’t have his best night at the debates, but said she’s not wavering on him.
“It was just the first debate,” Burwell said with an expectation that he’ll get better as the debates continue through summer and fall.
She said no one understands immigration issues better than O’Rourke and it’s going to show as the campaign rolls on.
That’s the issue that Castro used on Wednesday in the first debate against O’Rourke. In the first national debate among Democratic contenders, Castro faulted O’Rourke for not wanting to repeal a section of federal law that he says would decriminalize most border crossings to assure families aren’t separated at the border. But O’Rourke said he’s calling for larger immigration reform and would end separations, too, just in a different approach.
“If you did your homework on this issue, you would know that you can repeal this section,” said Castro during the debate.
Later he added: “I just think it’s a mistake, Beto, it’s a mistake.”
O’Rourke on Saturday in Houston did not mention Castro directly, but, with a smile, assured reporters when asked that he’s done his homework on immigration - the issue that has been central to O’Rourke’s campaigns since he started running for the U.S. Senate two years ago,
“As the only candidate from the United States-Mexico border, this is something I understand from the community that I’ve represented in Congress; the community that raised me; the community in which Amy and I are raising our three kids right now,” O’Rourke said.
While many political watchers believe Castro outdid O’Rourke on the debate stage, on the ground in Texas O’Rourke’s campaign flexed its political muscle. While Castro on Friday was preparing to hold his meet-and-greet with just over 100 supporters at a bar in Austin, O’Rourke’s campaign nearly at the last minute organized their own rally down the street at almost the same time. The result was O’Rourke had more than 1,000 people.
His campaign later released a statement taking aim at Castro’s comments about being “the Texan” in the race.
“Well, there are two Texans but only one has taken the time to visit each of the 254 counties of the state and only one has received more votes than any other Democrat in the history of Texas while building a grassroots movement that increased youth voter turnout by more than double,” the statement read.
It was just in September that Castro joined O’Rourke for hours of driving in South Texas during the 2018 election cycle. For hours, the two are on livestreamed Facebook posts talking about music, politics and their families as they jumped from town to town.
Castro in Houston on Sunday tried to tamp down the idea that a feud is growing between the two Democratic contenders. He faulted the media for trying to make it appear that the disagreement is about more than it is. He said it was never personal, just a policy difference.
“My brother and I like Beto, we campaigned for him,” Castro added. “And we get along well now.”
Castro needed a big week. Castro’s been lagging in polls and in fundraising since the start of the campaign. While O’Rourke is regularly polling in the top 6 candidates in the race and raised over $9 million in his first three weeks on the campaign, Castro has struggled to get even 1 percent in most polls and had raised only $1 million for his campaign, despite having been on the trail months before O’Rourke joined the field.
The situation is more critical for Castro because at the end of the summer, the Democratic National Committee will change the debate rules to require candidates to have over 130,000 unique campaign donors and hit 2 percent in four polls. O’Rourke has already done both, while Castro has yet to demonstrate either.
Castro on Sunday said at last count he was at about 100,000 unique donors and asked Harris County Democrats to chip in to help him hit that target.
Both candidate since Friday were all about Texas. After a stop in Austin on Friday, Castro went to San Antonio on Saturday before making his stop in Houston. For O’Rourke, after Austin it was three stops in Houston before heading to Clint to bring attention to another detention facility holding minors who have crossed the border.