Former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke brought his presidential campaign to Alabama tonight, telling a crowd at a Montgomery bar not to give in to the fears he said are spawned by divisive policies of President Donald Trump.
O’Rourke, part of the large field competing for the Democratic nomination, visited Goat Haus Biergarten in downtown Montgomery tonight.
Cheers greeted O’Rourke in the crowded beer bar in an old house in an historic part of Montgomery. He stood at the center of a packed room, donned an Alabama State University baseball cap, spoke for a few minutes, and took a half-dozen questions from the audience.
On Saturday, O’Rourke will be the keynote speaker at a meeting of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover.
O’Rourke, 47, who is from El Paso, represented a west Texas district for three terms in Congress before challenging U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his Senate seat last year. O’Rourke made a strong run at the high-profile Cruz, eventually losing by 3 percentage points.
Tonight, O’Rourke talked about what he said were dangerous times in the country because of rampant gun violence, climate change, lack of access to health care and mental health care, and what he said was an uneven economy that is leaving some behind.
O’Rourke said he visited the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum in downtown Montgomery earlier today. The museum traces the history of slavery and its aftermath. O’Rourke said the nation is still hobbled by systemic racism, as well as hostility toward immigrants and religious minorities that he said is fueled by Trump.
“These are the most perilous times that we’ve ever seen. And you don’t have to look far to find the truth in that statement,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke said that he visited north Texas on Thursday, where he spoke to the sisters of a black woman in Fort Worth who was shot and killed Saturday by a white police officer who fired into her home through a window. The officer has been charged with murder.
“There’s no where that they feel safe,” O’Rourke said the sisters told him.
Climate change, O’Rourke said, calls for urgent action. He said the United States should not miss the opportunity to lead the world in innovative alternatives to fossil fuels.
“We have but 10 years left as a civilization to get this right, to free ourselves from fossil fuels, embrace renewable energy and then help lead the planet,” O’Rourke said. “Because if the United States of America did all that today, that would only be 16 percent of the problem.”
Even though unemployment is low nationally and Alabama had its lowest jobless rate ever in September, O’Rourke said economic opportunity remains out of reach of some.
“You’ve got folks in this country working two or three or even four jobs just to make ends meet," O’Rourke said. "Strangers in their own economy. On the outside looking in to the wealth and the greatness that is produced in America that they are effectively and functionally locked out of.”
The former Congressman said the inability of some Americans to afford life-saving medicines or have access to care, especially in rural areas, is an inexcusable failure in the health care system.
“In the wealthiest, the greatest, the most powerful, most medically advanced country on planet Earth today, people are dying of diabetes, of the flu, of curable cancers," O’Rourke said.
Hanza Abbdullah, a sophomore at Alabama State University who is from Detroit, said he liked what O’Rourke said about gun control and improving access to health care. But Abbdullah said the right policies are usually not enough to carry a candidate.
“To be brutally honest, his opinions are the right thing to do and in politics, that’s never the popular thing to do,” said Abbdullah, who is involved with the NAACP at ASU. “When something is the right thing to do, it’s often thrown out the window because it’s not popular. People don’t look at it as the big thing or what’s catchy or what’s the trend.”
Audience members asked O’Rourke about rural health care, American companies not standing up for employees who support Hong Kong’s protests against China, the need for more funding and support for historically black colleges and universities, taking a tougher stance on assault-style weapons, supporting renewable energy sources and fighting lobbyists from the fossil fuel and pharmaceutical industries, and helping some Americans stuck in low-wage jobs find careers.
He gave detailed answers to all the questions before wrapping up the meet and greet session by posing for photos.
He implored those listening not to give in to what he said was Trump’s effort to promote fear as a divisive force.
“We have to be unafraid to believe that we can make the solutions to those challenges possible," O’Rourke said. "And we have to reject the false, fabricated, ... fear of the president who wants us to his own political advantage to be afraid of one another.”
Charlotte Cox of Montgomery, a behavioral therapist for children with autism, said O’Rourke is a gifted speaker and made a strong impression, although she said his remarks might have included a bit of pandering.
“I don’t think that of course this event is going to change anyone’s mind necessarily,” Cox said. “I don’t think any of the rhetoric was something that we haven’t already heard from him. Which is fine. I think he’s an absolutely wonderful, beautiful orator. I think he’s got a lot going for him in that direction and I think events like these are going to be important for him.”
Cox, who said she is involved with the political group Hometown Action, liked the way O’Rourke made himself accessible in the crowded forum and talked eye-to-eye. She said she believes O’Rourke’s chances of rising to the top of the Democratic field are slim because she believes he is too moderate.
“If Obama ran today he wouldn’t make it, and I loved Obama,” Cox said. "But he wouldn’t win right now. And neither will Beto. He’s too center right now. He’s too moderate."
O’Rourke said today’s trip was only his second visit to Alabama. The first came in 1993 or 1994, he said, when he was touring with a punk rock band and performed at a house party in Auburn.
Other candidates in the Democratic field have come to Alabama this year, including Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders.
Updated at 9:27 a.m. on Oct. 19 to add comments from Hanza Abbdullah. Updated at 10:05 a.m. to add comments from Charlotte Cox.
Alabama and national politics.
Former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke chatted and posed for photos after speaking and answering questions at Goat Haus Biergarten in Montgomery. (Mike Cason/mcason@al.com)