Tag Archives: Beto O’Rourke

State news

Beto has a shot?

You know, there once was a time — not many weeks ago — that I considered Greg Abbott a shoo-in for re-election as Texas governor.

That Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke didn’t have a Democrat’s chance in blazing hell of defeating the Republican incumbent.

Today? I am not so sure about that gloomy forecast.

Am I going to predict a Beto O’Rourke victory this November, breaking the GOP vise-grip on statewide elected office, ending the Republican dynasty at the top of the Texas political food chain?

Not … on … your … life!

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

However, I am going to suggest that the Abbott-O’Rourke contest well might become one of those races that the national media will be watching with intense interest.

This won’t surprise any readers of this blog, but my fervent hope is that O’Rourke defeats Abbott. The governor has become show horse, a guy who wants to elevate his personal political profile with an eye toward seeking the White House in 2024. Abbott’s idiotic pledge to send “illegal immigrants” to Washington, D.C., to hand the problem to the feds is an example of a politician looking to make headlines without offering the hint of a solution.

He doesn’t have a solution. Abbott has no interest in working with Democrats or seeking cooperation from President Biden.

I have no clue about how O’Rourke might handle this matter were he elected governor. I feel confident, though, in suggesting that O’Rourke, who hails from El Paso, knows plenty about border issues and he does not favor an “open border” policy.

Nor do I believe that O’Rourke is going to single-handedly disarm Texans by stripping us of our firearms. He knows better than to mess with the Constitution! That won’t stop Abbott and his cabal of demagogues from portraying O’Rourke as a soft-on-crime liberal.

I want this race to remain competitive. I want O’Rourke to make Abbott answer for the way the state handled the 2021 winter freeze. I want O’Rourke to offer a reasonable alternative to the Abbott posturing in the face of crisis after crisis.

What’s more, I want O’Rourke to tell Texans how he plans to govern and how he intends to end the state’s war against its gay residents, how he intends to make voting easier, not harder, for Texas.

And I want Beto O’Rourke to remain firm against the attacks that are sure to come from Greg Abbott.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Abbott vs. O’Rourke: gonna get nasty

Listen up, my fellow Texans. It is looking as though this year’s campaign for governor is going to get nasty. Maybe even way beyond nasty.

Democratic nominee Beto O’Rourke has leveled both rhetorical barrels as his Republican foe, Greg Abbott. I do for a moment believe Gov. Abbott is going to sit by passively while O’Rourke calls Abbott a “thug.”

Get a load of what the Texas Tribune has reported:

“I just had a chance to meet with the ambassador from the EU,” O’Rourke told Evan Smith, the CEO and co-founder of The Texas Tribune, in a crowded hall at the South by Southwest festival. “We talked about the fact that you’re seeing the continued rise of authoritarians and thugs across the world. And we have our own, right here, in the state of Texas.”

Smith asked, “Greg Abbott is a thug in your mind?”

O’Rourke replied, “He’s a thug, he’s an authoritarian.

Beto O’Rourke calls Gov. Greg Abbott a “thug” and an “authoritarian” | The Texas Tribune

Oh … feel the burn, OK?

Don’t get me wrong here. I want O’Rourke to defeat Abbott, who I believe has become a disciple of the Kooky Cabal of the GOP. Abbott has shown zero inclination to pull his own punches regarding O’Rourke, accusing Beto of wanting to disarm Texans by taking their guns away, which is a lie; he accuses O’Rourke of favoring “open borders,” which is false on its face.

O’Rourke’s thug description carries some remarkable imagery, to be sure.

Still, the fight for the Texas governor’s office is on. It’s going to get loud and likely quite angry in extremely short order.

We’d all better strap ourselves in tight and get ready for a rough ride to the political finish line.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Uncategorized

Won’t meet Beto … just yet

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

My temporary duty assignment with the Dallas Morning News came to an end and with it ended a chance to meet and possibly interview a man I hope gets elected governor of Texas later this year.

It saddens me to a significant degree. I was preparing to take part in what the DMN editorial board calls “rec meetings,” that enable the board to decide whom to “recommend” to readers the paper’s preferred choices for an array of public offices to be decided this year.

Beto O’Rourke, the former West Texas congressman and Democratic candidate for governor, is slated to meet with the editorial board during one of its “rec meetings.”

You’ll recall that O’Rourke came within a whisker of defeating the Cruz Missile for a seat in the U.S. Senate. He lost by just a little to Ted Cruz in 2018. He then sought to be nominated by Democrats for president in 2020 but flamed out fairly early in the primary campaign.

I hope to get to meet O’Rourke at some point in my life, maybe even this year as he treks across the state looking for voters who’ll cast their ballot for him instead of for Greg Abbott. I happen to live in a key North Texas community — in Collin County — where I expect O’Rourke and Abbott both will seek to mine plenty of votes.

I won’t have the pleasure of meeting him in an editorial board meeting. That’s OK. I do hope he is able to become our state’s next governor … and I hope it happens this year!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Beto has a shot, if …

Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/AP/REX/Shutterstock

A gentleman with whom I had breakfast today has a theory about the upcoming race for Texas governor I feel like sharing.

It goes like this …

Beto O’Rourke is likely to get hammered by Greg Abbott if O’Rourke is nominated by Democrats and runs against the Republican governor in the fall. But he has a possible path to victory.

It depends on whether Abbott fails to deliver on his promise to keep the electricity flowing this coming winter. If the lights go out because the electrical grid cannot withstand the demand placed on it by severe cold, then O’Rourke might be able to say, according to my friend, “I can do better than that.”

Sure enough. O’Rourke then would have to explain how he would ensure that the electric grid managers keep the lights on and our furnaces functioning.

Absent that, my friend said, O’Rourke has no chance to defeat a Republican governor in this still-quite-Republican state.

Gov. Abbott had better pray that the Electrical Reliability Council of Texas keeps the lights on for the duration of the winter. His political career might depend on it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmai.com

State news

Waiting for ‘the beef’

The latest round of public opinion polling on the 2022 Texas governor’s race sent a glaring message to me.

It goes like this: Matthew McConaughey polls stronger against Gov. Greg Abbott than Beto O’Rourke. Why? Because Texans don’t know a damn thing about McConaughey other than he won a best actor Oscar not many years ago for his role in “Dallas Buyers Club.”

O’Rourke has been on the national political stage since 2018 when he nearly defeated Sen. Ted Cruz in the race for Cruz’s U.S. Senate seat. Abbott, too, is now a well-known and highly chronicled political figure.

McConaughey? I don’t even know if he’s going to run for governor as a Democrat or Republican. He has been playing coy about the party under which he would run.

Indeed, the actor — a native of Texas who lives in the Austin area — has been coy about his views on an array of issues: immigration, public school curriculum, abortion, voting rights, gun violence and gun owners’ rights, climate change, energy production … stop me before I go bananas, OK?

I strongly suspect that when — or if — McConaughey starts laying out some specifics we are going to see some movement in those polls as it regards whether he stands a chance of becoming the state’s next governor.

For now, Texans seem to consider McConaughey a bit of a mystery man, albeit a dashing mystery man.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Beto vs. Abbott shaping up

Oh, my … forgive me for referring to former West Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke by just his first name in this headline, which in reality is a nickname. It just sounds cool.

Still, he and the man he hopes to defeat in 2022 are serious men. My hope is that O’Rourke and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott don’t tack too far to the left or right as they seek to curry favor with most Texas voters.

I have declared myself to be a “good government progressive,” which I intend to mean that I am not opposed to compromise if it produces sound legislation and law.

Abbott has veered to the far right since the start of the 2021 Legislature. I dislike his right-wing views. O’Rourke has appealed to the far left since losing a U.S. Senate race by just a little in 2018 and then flamed out in a 2020 bid for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. To be candid, I am not comfortable with the progressives’ agenda.

I am not sure that most Texans are comfortable with far left or far right politics. There is out here, in the words of the late Colin Powell, a “vast middle ground.” I hope O’Rourke and Abbott find themselves arguing for that middle-of-the-road avenue.

As the Dallas Morning News noted in its editorial today, the state will be better off for it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Curious juxtaposition on guns

A headline in the Texas Tribune had me scratchin’ my noggin.

It asked: Beto O’Rourke went after assault rifles in his run for president. Will that hurt him with gun-loving Texans?

Well, that poses a quandary, don’t you think? Of course it does! But here’s the deal as I see it. I consider myself to be a “gun-loving Texan.” I own a couple of rifles, both of which are keepsakes given to me when I was a boy by my father. One of them is a single-shot .22-caliber rifle; the other is a 30.06 that carries a five-round magazine.

Neither of them is an assault weapon. I love my guns, even though I rarely shoot them.

Back to the Tribune’s question: I fear that O’Rourke’s statement about assault weapons is going to hurt him among many Texans who profess to love their guns, but who in reality love owning — or love the prospect of owning — weapons designed to kill human beings in rapid fashion on a battlefield.

The question came to O’Rourke during a 2020 Democratic primary presidential debate. He had said “hell yes!” he wanted to take people’s assault rifles. I did not in that moment believe he intended to send agents to my home and confiscate my two cherished rifles.

The crazy crowd among us no doubt is going to interpret O’Rourke’s statement in 2020 as a clarion call to disarm us all. You can bet your last bandolier that Gov. Greg Abbott is going to play on that fear as he seeks to paint O’Rourke as a commie sympathizer intent on destroying the Second Amendment to our Constitution.

Will Beto O’Rourke’s stance on guns hurt him in 2022’s Texas governor race? | The Texas Tribune

Let’s get ready for a rough campaign.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

O’Rourke faces red tide

Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/AP/REX/Shutterstock

I have to agree with the assessment being kicked around that Beto O’Rourke’s decision to run for Texas governor in 2022 carries far greater risk than his near-victory in 2018 in a race for the U.S. Senate.

Why is that? Because the incumbent Republican he is challenging this time, Greg Abbott, is far more likable and is in a politically stronger place than the GOP incumbent he faced in 2018, Ted Cruz.

O’Rourke came within 3% of grounding the Cruz Missile. Polls show him trailing Abbott narrowly this time (so far). However, his 2020 Democratic Party primary presidential bid ended badly and he said some things about guns that are going to haunt him when he hits the trail in Texas.

He said that “hell yes” he would take people’s assault rifles. Abbott has morphed that statement into “Beto will take your guns.” That won’t hurt him in gun-happy Texas? Yeah. It will.

I wish O’Rourke well as he campaigns for governor. I want him to win bigly. I want Abbott to be shown the door and for Abbott to disappear from the political stage.

I wonder about whether Beto O’Rourke’s time has arrived — yet again! — for him to stage the kind of political upset that many of us desire to see happen.

Beto O’Rourke enters 2022 a weaker candidate with a harder race | The Texas Tribune

Abbott has said “bring it!” when talking about O’Rourke’s candidacy. Fine, but O’Rourke also will have plenty with which to work.

Abbott’s miserable pandemic response, his support of an overly harsh ban on abortion, his support of efforts to suppress voters in Texas all can become the stuff of snappy campaign ads. Indeed, Abbott must be made to answer for all of it and I hope O’Rourke — presuming he wins the Democratic Party primary next spring — will make the governor answer.

Let’s be clear on one point. Beto O’Rourke faces a steep climb.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Beto jumps in!

Beto O’Rourke today made official what many observers had speculated for some time, that he is going to run for Texas governor in 2022.

O’Rourke is a Democrat. The incumbent governor, Greg Abbott, is a Republican. It appears to be a fairly safe bet to suggest that O’Rourke will survive the Democratic Party primary next spring and that Abbott will be nominated by GOP voters at the same time.

That means the two of them will square off for Abbott’s job.

I want zero misunderstanding, as if there is any possibility of that occurring with this next statement: I want Abbott to lose his job!

He has been a disgrace as a governor and I say that with some regret. I knew him when he was a Texas Supreme Court justice and as state attorney general. I thought we had a nice professional relationship.

Abbott ran for governor after I left full-time journalism behind so our paths haven’t crossed since he took that office in 2015.

But, man, he has managed to piss me off royally since becoming governor.

I have detested his handling of the COVID pandemic and his refusal to let local governments take control of health matters in their communities. His support of that hideous anti-abortion bill and his declaration that he would work to “eliminate rape” from occurring is utterly laughable on its face. He has tacked so far to the right that there is virtually no room between himself and the precipice over which he would tumble.

Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman from El Paso, reached a high-water mark politically by nearly defeating Sen. Ted Cruz in the race for the U.S. Senate. He believes he still has the political chops to take on Abbott. I hope that is the case. Indeed, Abbott’s aforementioned COVID response and his legislative record have given O’Rourke plenty of ammo to use against the governor.

I hope he succeeds.

You go, Beto!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Hey, Beto … you gonna run?

Photo by Richard W. Rodriguez/AP/REX/Shutterstock 

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Oh, Beto, Beto, Beto!

The young former West Texas Democratic congressman had to walk back something he said out loud, in public, to a TV reporter.

He said he didn’t plan to run for Texas governor in 2022. Then his office called the Texas Tribune to say … oops! “What I said today is what I’ve been saying for months: I’m not currently considering a run for office,” Beto O’Rourke said in a statement. “I’m focused on what I’m doing now (teaching and organizing.) Nothing’s changed and nothing I said would preclude me from considering a run in the future.”

Don’t you just hate it when politicians say something and then tell you what they meant to say?

According to the Texas Tribune: “I’ve got no plans to run, and I’m very focused on the things that I’m lucky enough to do right now — organizing, registering voters and teaching,” O’Rourke said on NBC DFW’s “Lone Star Politics,” which will air Sunday. “I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing now.”

Beto O’Rourke clarifies running for governor still on the table | The Texas Tribune

Sure. I get it. He is “focused” on whatever he is doing at this moment. None of that precludes him getting focused at the next moment on something else, such as running for governor.

I happen to believe Beto O’Rourke is going to run for governor. I believe he should run. I also believe a Beto win over Gov. Greg Abbott would slam-dunk any chance of Abbott seeking the presidency in 2024.

Those are my hopes. I just want Beto O’Rourke to stop telling us what he means to say.