Unlikely Texans get star roles at DNC

Robert Lopez was overwhelmed when he first got the invitation to participate in the Democratic National Convention.

“I was definitely nervous,” the 35-year-old firefighter from the Rio Grande Valley said.

Lopez said he’s just a middleclass guy who is involved with his union but doesn’t see himself as either a Democrat or a Republican. But still, the Biden campaign invited the Mission resident to be one of the featured voices during national convention lineup to talk about the economy.

“Of course I agreed,” Lopez said. “It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

While many of the biggest names in Texas Democratic politics have been left out of the prime-time speaking slots, national Democrats instead are turning to other Texans as part of their pitch to highlight “ordinary people” to make their policy points on the biggest issues of the day.

Lopez said when he thinks of conventions, he just thinks of politicians giving speeches. He said it's nice to see this year that regular Texans such as himself are getting a chance to speak up about what they think.

Lopez said while he was nervous at first, it quickly subsided once he was talking with Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and the other participants about jobs and the economy.

“It was like sitting around the table and talking to your friends,” said Lopez, who was in a segment that aired Thursday night. That segment was expected to air on Wednesday but was bumped because the program was behind schedule.

During his time on camera, Lopez talked to Biden about how COVID-19 is taking a toll on families with children. He said in families with two people who work, the idea of trying to do online schooling for young children is creating strains for many of his fellow firefighters.

“They’re just trying to figure out how they are going to do it with their kids,” Lopez told Biden during the segment. “What arrangements are they going to have to make?”

Lopez said while he thinks there are some good things President Donald Trump has done, he’s convinced Biden would be a better president for the middle class and union workers. He said Biden has a long track record of defending firefighters and their unions.

Before Lopez, it was Michelle Beebe, a school nurse from El Paso, who was featured in an interview on Monday night about sending her kids back to school during the pandemic.

“Honestly, right now, all I can think about is keeping my kiddos safe,” said Beebe, a mother of three who was wearing her nursing scrubs during the interview with Eva Longoria, the actress originally from Corpus Christi.

That same night, San Antonio’s Rebekah Ozuna was one of several teachers featured during a segment on children going back to school during the pandemic.

On Tuesday during the traditional roll call at the convention, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, announced the state’s support for Biden, but she was flanked on both sides by nonpoliticians such as Christian Juarez, a neonatal nurse, and Myndi Luevanos, a gun control advocate and mother of four.

Of course, Texas politicians have been part of the proceedings. Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Brownsville, and former U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke all had small speaking roles. And on Monday, Police Chief Art Acevedo was part of a discussion focused on police reforms in which he specifically talked about the murder of former Houston resident George Floyd.

“This is a watershed moment, and we can’t lose this moment,” Acevedo said. “We have got to have action at the national level. We have got to have congressional action. We cannot have 18,000 police departments and in 2020 have police departments still allowing the use of a knee on a man’s neck.”