Beto O'Rourke Delivers Remarks at New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention

Buenas tardes. Good to see you all. Hey, hey, up in the cheap seats. Thank you all so much. Thank you. Look, let me just begin by telling you how much I love you all for the kindness with which you have received us, not just those who work on our campaign, not just supporters of ours, but literally every person that I've met in the hall today, regardless of the candidate that you support, you've had a kind word to say to me and to Amy, a smile on your face, a word of encouragement. And so I just want you to know that I'm grateful to everyone in every community of this state, every town hall that we've had. You've made us feel at home. You've made us feel welcomed. You've made us feel like we're doing the right thing in the right place. You take your responsibility as the first primary state so seriously. And I've met those of you who've told me that you've met me five or six times, and by the 10th time, you will make up your mind one way or the other. And I'm grateful for that. But I want to say a special word for our campaign, for our supporters, for our volunteers who are organizing and knocking on doors, for those crazy mothers who are here at 2.30 a.m. in the wind and the rain, setting up those signs. We have the best team I could have ever hoped for. And I just want to tell you that I'm grateful, I'm proud of you, and we will make the most of this moment that we have here together. Thank you. Listen, so many of you have been sending your encouragement and your strength and your love and your thoughts and your prayers and your commitment to act to the people of El Paso, to the people of Odessa and Midland, to those in West Texas who have endured one massacre after another, to a state that has seen four mass shootings in under two years. And I want to tell you that everything that you have sent our way has been gratefully received. I was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. Amy and I are raised in Ulysses and Mali, and Henry there as well. It's a magical place. Connected with Ciudad Juarez, it forms the largest bi-national community in the Western Hemisphere. Three million of us, connected, not separated by the border and the Rio Grande River, forming something far greater and more powerful than the sum of our parts or the number of people involved. El Paso, Texas, in fact, is one of, if not the safest cities in the United States of America, not despite, but because it's a city of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees and their sons and daughters who make us great by their very presence. But on August 3rd of this year, we learned that no matter how safe or how special we are, we are connected to the rest of this country. Martin Luther King reminded us that we were all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. This is a violent country that loses more than 40,000 of our fellow Americans every year to gun violence. And this is a country that has been defined by foundational, systemic, endemic racism since the very founding of this country, August 20th of 1619, the first time that a kidnapped African was brought here against his will and made to serve as a slave to build the greatness and the success and the wealth of this country, which his descendants would never be able to fully participate in. This is the reality of the United States of America. And sooner or later, it was going to find us. It wasn't a matter if, it was a matter of when. And on August 3rd, it did, when a gunman who legally purchased an AK-47, a weapon designed for killing people as effectively, as efficiently, in as great a number as possible on a battlefield, drove 600 miles, fueled by that racism, that hate, that fear, and that intolerance. It has always been part of this country, but has been given new life by the president of the United States, Donald Trump, who has called Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals, who has sought to ban all Muslim travel to the United States of America, who calls Klansmen and Nazis very fine people. This person drove 600 miles with that hatred, really at the invitation of our president, and opened fire with that AK-47 on innocent people in a Walmart, killing 22 of them, and grievously wounding many dozens more. Though we are connected to the violence in this country, though we are connected to its racism, though there is no shield against this president who has no honor, no morals, and no ethics, we're also connected to a country that at its best is defined by its ambitions, and its aspirations, and the hard work, and resolve, and the dedication of the people of America who want to see them realized. This is a country that has produced Moms Demand. This is a country that has produced March for Our Lives. This is a country that has produced the leadership that will ensure that we not only have universal background checks, and red flag laws, and end the sale of those weapons of war, but that we go the necessary steps further as politically difficult as they may be. A gun registry in this country, licensing for every American who owns a firearm, and every single one of those AR-15s and AK-47s will be bought back so they're not on our streets, not in our homes. Do not take the lives of our fellow Americans, and we're going to do that together. This is a country that produced the North Carolina A&T Four, who on February 1st, 1960, walked into a Woolsworth, sat at the counter, and tried to order coffee, and were denied service based on the color of their skin. But they did not give up. They had the courage of their convictions. They returned day after day until on July 25th of that year, that lunch counter was integrated, until later on, they shocked the conscience of this country, inspired others who were willing to act and defy Jim Crow and segregation in this country, like those children in Alabama who were arrested by the hundreds in the Children's Crusade in 1963. It is that leadership on civil rights that this country produced that granted us the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. It is their inheritors, Black Lives Matter, who today will make sure that we effectively confront this racism in this country, sign into law a reparations bill, and make sure that we repair the damage done and stop visiting this injustice on future generations. And it is this country that has produced Annunciation House, a Catholic charity in El Paso, Texas, that seeks to take care of the most vulnerable, the most defenseless, the most desperate who arrive here after a 2,000-mile journey, leaving their country of origin because they have no other choice. The violence, the persecution, the droughts caused not by God nor by Mother Nature, but by you and me, our excesses, are in action in the face of the facts and the science, the climate change that we are producing. They take care of those asylum seekers and immigrants. They show America at our best, and they inspire us to do the right thing.