In their never-ending quest to turn Texas blue, liberals have penned their hopes on United States Representative Beto O’Rourke. O’Rourke, a Democrat, currently holds the seat for Texas’s 16th congressional district. The 45-year-old is taking on Republican Senator Ted Cruz in the 2018 mid-term elections. With his youthful appearance, unique name, and liberal convictions, O’Rourke has become quite the media darling. His participation in a punk rock band as a youngster sealed his fate as a fan favorite among the left.
The biased news media has even been conjuring up comparisons of O’Rourke and the Kennedys. Referring to the Texas Congressman, TIME reported, “Elderly voters some-times tell him that he reminds them of John F. Kennedy.” GQ contended, “And yet this has been the summer of Beto—a giddy campaign season during which descriptive clichés like ‘Kennedy-esque’ and ‘punk-rock Democrat’ have abounded.”
On September 19, 2018, the Texas Congressman gave some mainstream liberals another reason to fawn over him. At a town hall event at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, he referred to police as “the New Jim Crow.”
Amazingly, in the year 2018, O’Rourke still steadfastly believes cops regularly target African Americans because of their skin color. Giving his audience a sobering history lesson, O’Rourke said, “Talking about criminal justice reform, let’s talk about where this problem started. When contractors needed labor, they would talk to local law enforcement, who would arrest African-Americans for idling, for petty crimes, frivolous offenses.” He went on to brazenly say, “Those contractors would describe the number of bodies that they needed and law enforcement would provide those bodies.”
O’Rourke continued his diatribe by stating, “That injustice … continues to persist today. That system of suspending somebody solely based on the color of their skin, searching for that person solely based on the color of their skin, stopping that person solely based on the color of their skin, shooting that person solely based on the color of their skin, throwing the book at that person and letting them rot behind bars solely based on the color of their skin is why some have called this — I think it is an apt description — the new Jim Crow.”
Pushback from conservatives regarding O’Rourke’s harsh comments was swift and targeted. His opponent in the 2018 mid-terms sharply criticized the remarks. In a tweet, Cruz said, “This kind of extreme rhetoric divides us on racial lines & inflames hatred. Vast majority of police officers are brave, honorable, and risk their lives keeping us safe; it’s wrong to smear them as racists.”
On the September 21, 2018 broadcast of Fox & Friends, Denton County Texas Sheriff Tracy Murphree slammed O’Rourke’s statements about cops calling them “Divisive” and “Dangerous.”
On September 15, 2018, just four days before his relentless attack on police, O’Rourke made more respectful comments about cops. In a tweet, the Texas congressman praised the important work law enforcement officers do in American communities. He said, “My thoughts are with the family of Fort Worth police officer Garrett Hull who has died in the line of duty. And with all of those women and men who served alongside him, keeping our communities and our state safe.”
Officer Garrett Hull wasn’t an African American man who was unfairly targeted by rogue cops. Rather, he, like too many others, was a brave law enforcement officer who was shot and killed on September 14, 2018 while pursing three robbery suspects.
A Quinnipiac University Poll released on September 18, 2018, the day before O’Rourke’s comments about cops, showed Cruz has a nine point lead on his opponent. Only one percent of poll participants said they were still undecided. The assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, Peter A. Brown said, “The Texas U.S. Senate race between Sen. Ted Cruz and Congressman Beto O’Rourke, and Democratic hopes for an upset win there have boosted talk of a Senate takeover. These numbers may calm that talk.”
He went on to add, “Congressman O’Rourke may be drawing big crowds and media attention, but Texas likely voters like Sen. Cruz better.” In April of 2018, polling showed the race was too close to call. However, earlier polling of the race was conducted using registered voters whereas the latest Quinnipiac University Poll utilized likely voters.
It will be interesting to see if and how O’Rourke’s attacks on the police will affect this contest that has already garnered much national attention.
~ American Liberty Report
