Beto O'Rourke's Address to the Texas Democratic Convention

Greetings to my fellow Texas Democrats and I hope that you are as well as you can possibly be given what is happening in this country and in our state and in our lives right now. If you are like me, you are filled with a profound sadness and anger at these latest examples of the injustice of our country. Black men and black women murdered by the very people who were sworn to serve and to protect them. A country that despite its promises and principles still sees and treats some of our fellow Americans as less human than others. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and here in Texas Sandra Bland, Tatiana Jefferson, and Botham Jean. These are just some of the men and women who have paid the ultimate price for the failures of our country. If you're in El Paso, you're also mourning the passing of Memo Garcia. He's the 23rd person to lose his life due to the mass terror attack at the Walmart in El Paso last August. He fought for the last nine months to stay alive, but he was fighting against the high impact, high velocity round shot by a weapon of war. A weapon of war shot by a mass murderer who hunted Memo down solely based on the color of his skin. A mass murderer who hunted him down because he was inspired and compelled to do so by Donald Trump, the president of the United States of America, who openly traffics in racism and has sent an unambiguous signal to white mass murderer terrorists like the person who killed those people at the Walmart. That the enemy is the other, and the other is anyone who does not look like the majority in this country. It is enough anger and sadness to tempt us to despair. But should we succumb to that temptation, we run the risk of losing the last best hope, not only for our families and ourselves and our country, but for this world. Because American life is defined by injustice for so many, but it can also demonstrate the capacity for service and sacrifice that is unrivaled by any other country on the planet. So though we enslaved our fellow human beings more than 400 years ago, and on their backs built the wealth of this country that neither they nor their descendants would ever fully enjoy. We are also the same country that sacrificed hundreds of thousands of men and women in the fight to end the Confederacy and end the institution of slavery successfully. We are also the country in the 20th century that produced civil rights leaders that inspire civil rights leaders, the world over civil rights leaders in America who are willing to risk their lives. And in so many cases gave their lives for the full civil rights of every American of every generation that follows producing the civil rights act and the voting rights act. And we are also the country, which 76 years ago, this day, D day, June 6th, 1944, sent 73,000 people, fellow Americans to the beaches of Normandy to fight against the most brutal white supremacist regime this world has ever known. The third Reich under Adolf Hitler, and more than 2,500 of our fellow Americans lost their lives on those beaches on this very day, 76 years ago. So yes, we are capable of the injustice and brutality that we are seeing in this country and is being led by this administration right now, but we are also capable of extraordinary service and sacrifice. And it is our choice to make our decision to make. And this decision will define us forever. That is why in addition to protesting and grieving, we must organize, we must register and we must vote. And we must do that in record numbers right here in Texas, my fellow Democrats, because we have the power to change this country. We demonstrated that in 2018 when we elected two new members of Congress, 12 new members to the state legislature and 17 African American women to judicial positions in Harris County, literally changing the face of criminal justice in the largest county in the state of Texas. We have the power this year to win a majority in the state house, to end decades of racial gerrymandering, to move forward on issues like voting rights and access to healthcare, climate change, and racial justice here in the state of Texas. And thanks to Celia Israel and the HDCC and all you amazing precinct chairs out there, we are going to do that this year. We have the power to elect democratic majorities in our county courthouses and city councils, the most fundamental level of government and justice in the United States. You look at Lena Hidalgo in Harris County, Clay Jenkins in Dallas right now, they show the example of what Democrats can do when they're in positions of leadership and public trust. We can stop John Cornyn, Trump's greatest enabler in the Senate, and elect someone there that we can be proud of. And this, we can award our 38 electoral college votes to Joe Biden. First time since 1976 that a Democrat will win this state, and it is up to us to do it, and my fellow Democrats, I know we can. And I know it's the most important thing that we can be focused on right now, because if this election is close, even if Joe Biden lawfully wins it, Donald Trump, who has shown no regard for the law, and everything in his body, in his mind, will focus on maintaining and increasing his purchase on power, he will exploit that margin to steal this election. The answer to that threat is Texas. It will be absolutely seismic. It will stop Donald Trump in his tracks forever, and it will change what is politically possible in America. This is the work that we should be focused on right now. It is also the antidote to despair and the key to victory. I am so grateful to be in this fight with you. God bless you, God bless Texas, and God bless the United States of America.