Candidates call for background checks for gun buyers, push for Harvey relief

AUSTIN — Two leading Democrats running for governor called on Saturday for universal background checks for Texas gun buyers, a move which may run afoul of Republican supporters of the Second Amendment.

During an afternoon forum during an AFL-CIO political committee convention, both Houston entrepreneur Andrew White and former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez said they support the universal checks to keep people from buying guns who would be dangerous to have them.

“Why should I be able to buy a gun without a background check?” White — who has said he is a firm supporter of the constitutional right to bear arms — told the audience, calling it “common sense” change in current law.

They were the only two of nine Democratic candidates who were invited to speak to the meeting. Texas AFL-CIO President Rick Levy opened the forum by saying that Republican Greg Abbott, never a close friend of unions, was not invited.

Union leaders are expected to endorse one of the two candidates.

Speaking to the Houston Chronicle after the program, Valdez and White said Abbott should be pushing harder to get the Republican-controlled Congress in Washington to approve the next allocation of Harvey recovery funding.

‘Get it done’

Amid partisan bickering over a budget deadlock that shut down the federal government, Congress failed to approve the next installment of $81 billion in disaster relief funds — some of which is destined to come to Texas.

“You’d think the Republicans could talk to themselves and get it done,” White said, echoing comments from Valdez that Abbott needs to push harder with legislative leaders in Washington to get Texans the next installment of badly needed relief funding.

In the past two months, as the relief-funding bills have been delayed and stalled, Abbott has expressed increasing frustration with Congress for not approving the money.

“This election is one of the most important in our lifetimes,” White told the crowd, noting House Speaker Joe Straus — a moderate on some issues who is credited with blocking passage of the bathroom bill among other controversial issues — is retiring. That will leave much-moreconservative Republicans like Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick in their powerful posts.

“I’m the candidate who can beat Greg Abbott,” White said, blasting the governor and other state GOP leaders for being “part of the Donald Trump school of government.”

Valdez, a San Antonio native and daughter of migrant farm workers, said she is the candidate who will stand up for average Texans. “I have fought for and will continue to fight for the common folk,” she said.

During a questionand-answer session that came after they made brief speeches, both were asked how they stand a chance at winning when Abbott has more than $43.3 million in his campaign war chest and Republicans have won all statewide offices for two decades.

‘Energizing the base’

In their first few weeks of campaigning, White has reported he raised about $219,000 and Valdez reported raising $46,000 — small amounts compared to the millions that previous Democratic Party gubernatorial candidates have raised, with just eight weeks to go before the Democratic primary election.

Valdez said the upcoming primary “is all about energizing the base” and not so much about having large sums of campaign cash on hand. White said Democrats need a candidate for the general election “who can convince the reasonable Republicans to vote for a Democrat.”