O'Rourke offers blue vision for red Texas during Nelson showTimes Union, Sep 30, 2018, Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democratic Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rouke rallied thousands with Willie Nelson on Saturday night, offering an openly liberal vision for the country's largest conservative state and vowing that his campaign that has shunned outside political support can topple Republican Ted Cruz in November.
Taking an open-air stage in Texas' progressive-minded capital city, O'Rourke said he wanted to appeal to voters from both parties and independents but called for universal health care and gay rights, warned of the ills of climate change and switched to his fluent Spanish to denounce President Donald Trump's calls to wall off the U.S.-Mexico border. He also decried the federal government's war on drugs, saying it disproportionately targets minorities and the poor.
"People of the future are counting on us while we can still get this right," O'Rourke said of changing the direction of Texas, where a Democrat hasn't won statewide office since 1994. Despite refusing donations from political action committees, O'Rourke has enjoyed monster fundraising that has outpaced Cruz. He said that's allowed him to focus on "people and that's how we win this election."
After Nelson took the stage, O'Rourke sang backup to the iconic hit "On the Road Again" while the crowd cheered, many wearing T-shirts or waving signs bearing the candidate's name.
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https://www.timesunion.com/news/texas/article/Concert-with-Willie-Nelson-shows-O-Rourke-s-13268332.php
