00:00Great. First of all, Benno, thank you for being here.
00:07We need Republican educating, fired up people like you representing us, because we're, I'll tell you, a lifelong Democrat.
00:17And I am frustrated. And beyond frustrated, I'm pissed.
00:22Republicans, for all of their faults, one thing they aren't very, very good about is domestic.
00:28They won't. They, and I don't even attribute this to Donald Trump, because I don't even consider Trump a Republican.
00:37You'd have to dig pretty deep into the Republican platebook to find something that Trump is executing.
00:42But as Democrats, and I so appreciate what this gentleman said, and what the woman over here said, these are real issues.
00:52These are real messages. And what do we get tied up in an election? We get tied up over the most extreme LGBTQ issues.
01:01We get tied up over men going into women's restrooms and that kind of bullshit.
01:07We get so tied up over the Second Amendment.
01:10I'm a lifelong Democrat. I've never been one Democrat who wants to repeal the Second Amendment.
01:15But every Republican out there is terrified of that, and that's the thing that turns their vote.
01:22Instead of voting for the issues that this gentleman brought up, and instead of voting about the issues that all the people who've spoken here tonight regarding health care,
01:32we are so tied up in fighting against these sort of phantom issues.
01:36And I guess my question for you is this. What the hell are we doing at a national level to create a message that makes sense to Americans?
01:49I love what you said a moment ago about meeting Americans where they are, and that is absolutely essential.
01:55But what are we doing as a party to combat what the Republicans do?
02:00Because they are keeping our hands down.
02:03That's it.
02:06I feel like they have chosen the terrain of every bachelorette that we have fought for the last four years, six years, eight years.
02:18They're just evil geniuses at this stuff.
02:22I mean, every Democratic challenger of 24 is trying to explain their decision on bathrooms or these issues.
02:29And listen, not that it's not important for people who fix this in their school, but it's the most important issue.
02:34Is it the thing that we want people to listen to about? Is it the thing that we're fighting for?
02:38I mean, we are fighting so that you are paying enough not to work a second or a third child.
02:42We're fighting so that you can see a doctor and live to see the next day ahead if you've got to go bankrupt in the process.
02:48We are fighting so that you can form this country in a safe, legal, orderly way to contribute to the very greatness that immigrants have made in the most diverse city in America every day that Houston has been on this planet.
03:00We are fighting so that your child doesn't have to worry wants to demand action about a gunman entering that room with an AR-15 in one year already, right?
03:09We are fighting to return to the red record and the world's more easy to remember what I can feel like.
03:15Basically, seeing the challenge of this message is you can't say it as much as you have to share with it.
03:20And so, you know, when we went to every one of those 254 counties in 2018, be honest, how many of you knew there were 254 counties with 39% out of 10? You know, what was the message of that campaign?
03:36You know, how are we so damn successful in that year? Why did we have 10 throughs on the tackle? Why did Greg Abbott have to spend a king's ransom to bail his ass out at the end for two and a half points? But for that, I'd be speaking to you as a junior senator from the state of Texas right now. It's because we showed up, we listened to, and we fought for people just like this gentleman said earlier. And that's what we're doing right now.
04:02I mean, this town hall tonight was preceded by 10 that we've already had last Monday in Garland, Texas. Before that, in Havarillo. Before that, Wichita Falls. Who knew that 470 people would come out in Wichita Falls?
04:17I mean, we're going everywhere to listen to you, fight with, fight alongside with, and be there for each and every single person.
04:33And anyone who tells you that they know the message right now, I don't know if they're being completely honest with you or real.
04:41The message, and I think you said it for all of us at the desk, it's getting said, the message is going to come from the people that we want to serve, right?
04:49The people that we want to deliver from. I mean, I'm going to repeat the story that I've heard from you.
04:53This beautiful, amazing 72-year-old woman taking care of her 77-year-old husband who is fighting tooth and claw to make sure that she has every possible day with her to fill these memories.
05:04They're going to reach the best of her life if she has the best quality of life possible.
05:08That ruined me so goddamn much. I'm going to share that story with every other person that I meet right.
05:14And I'm also happy to think that politically and electorally, that is the right strategy.
05:19And I'll give you proof. First race I ever win was the 2005 for the El Paso State Council.
05:27I'm going up against the mayor pro town of El Paso, Henry Cobos, who's going to outspend me in that race 4-1.
05:35Nobody knew what it was, everyone knew who the scouts was.
05:38And so I made a virtue of necessity, didn't have money, didn't have name, idea, knocked on doors each and every day.
05:43I'm in the Wrestler Canyon neighborhood on the west side of El Paso, I'm not going to go, hey, my name's Beto O'Rourke, and I want to make sure that I keep your property taxes down,
05:53and we're going to work on more green space, and we're going to rewrite the subdivision code, and the person who answered the door stops me.
05:58You say, hey, that's great.
06:00But what I care about in the Wrestler Canyon neighborhood is they're about to develop and pay over Wrestler Canyon.
06:05So all this nature, wildlife, the reason we moved here in the first place, it's all going to be done.
06:10I want you to focus on that and fix that.
06:13Second, how's it not coming?
06:15I give my same pitch, and the person at the end of it says, that's great, but we're really concerned about them developing Wrestler Canyon behind us.
06:23Third, how's it not coming?
06:24They answered the door.
06:25Hi, my name's Beto O'Rourke, and I'm here to save Wrestler Canyon.
06:29We've been there every single boat.
06:32I didn't know you literally.
06:33Because we listen to the people that we want to sit down.
06:37We're going to call them to get back.
06:39We're the data scientists, the consultants, you know.
06:41How do you got to meet the people in democracy?
06:45I don't speak Greek, but I think it has something to do with people, right?
06:48Lincoln, government of, by, and for one of the people.
06:51Politics, people, the technology, the money, the social media, the mailers, the TV ads, the radio spots.
06:59Those are all the core stuff that we do for what we are doing right now.
07:03The message is not the meeting.
07:05The message is the people.
07:06We will listen to them.
07:08They will give it to us.
07:09We share it back out there, and we start winning some elections.
07:12Thank you for asking me a question.
07:13Appreciate it.
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