Quote:Beto Burnout might be setting in. But not on stage.

A wide-awake Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke rallied a three-fourths-full Ridglea Theater crowd early Saturday morning, emphasizing four words: “We vote on Monday.”

On the eve of early voting in his 21-month, $61 million campaign for U.S. Senate, O’Rourke barely even alluded to incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz but campaigned hard against his familar targets: Texas voters’ cynicism and disillusionment.

As national publications began speculating on a Beto 2020 presidential campaign — one headline reads “Beto O’Rourke Isn’t Running for Senate Anymore” — O’Rourke hewed to his now-familiar hope-and-change themes of inspiration and involvement to motivate a smaller-than-usual rally crowd..

“We are the government,” he told the turnout of about 1,000 mostly Anglo Democrats, a demographic which represents only about 10-15 percent of Texas voters.

“We have the power to stop the things we don’t like.”

His list “the wall, the separation [of refugee parents and children], the Muslim ban, the press as enemy of the people.”

That isn’t every Texan’s list.

But with a caravan of Honduran migrants pushing across the Mexico-Guatemala border and President Trump coming to Houston to lead a Cruz rally focusing on borders and immigration, O’Rourke doubled down on his defense of refugees and asylum seekers.

The Honduran migrant caravan is “a reminder that there is leadership elsewhere that is lacking,” said O’Rourke, an El Paso Democrat:

“We can try to solve this at our border, through walls and separation. Or we can make sure that the most powerful country in the world — the most inspiring country in the world — devotes resources, that means time and attention, to those countries in Central America where there is such a level of misery that people would contemplate a 2,000-mile journey, with their kids, risking their lives to come here.

(10-22-2018 05:25 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  BTW, according to the 5 pm Tarrant County voting board (or whatever group monitors their early voting), they have had 38,430 ballots cast already out of their 704 precincts and 1.1 million registered voters. In other words, 3.38 percent of all voters have already voted as of 5 pm. Those are presidential election type numbers, not midterm numbers.

Now Tarrant County isn't blue I realize (in 2016 it went for Trump 52 percent to 43 percent roughly, with slighly higher early voting percentages than that for Republicans). The total early voting in 2016 was 472K. But do you really think that Cruz will get a higher percentage of votes than Trump in Tarrant County? I think higher early voting in the bigger counties favors O'Rourke.

Either way, making fun of a crowd count for O'Rourke in Tarrant County when the voter turnout is strong is a losing proposition.

https://twitter.com/ToddWFAA8/status/1054494598628868096

(10-22-2018 05:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.chron.com/news/politics/horseshoe/article/Harris-County-smashes-early-voting-record-13327145.php?utm_campaign=twitter

As of 4:30, 60 thousand early voters have cast ballots in Harris County, smashing the old record of 26K for a midterm election. It's also more than there were in 2012 (47K). I can't find the 2016 total for early voting yet.

(10-22-2018 05:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.chron.com/news/politics/horseshoe/article/Harris-County-smashes-early-voting-record-13327145.php?utm_campaign=twitter

As of 4:30, 60 thousand early voters have cast ballots in Harris County, smashing the old record of 26K for a midterm election. It's also more than there were in 2012 (47K). I can't find the 2016 total for early voting yet.

(10-22-2018 06:07 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(10-22-2018 05:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.chron.com/news/politics/horseshoe/article/Harris-County-smashes-early-voting-record-13327145.php?utm_campaign=twitter

As of 4:30, 60 thousand early voters have cast ballots in Harris County, smashing the old record of 26K for a midterm election. It's also more than there were in 2012 (47K). I can't find the 2016 total for early voting yet.

Early voting is dumb. People know for months when voting day is and can make the necessary accommodations.

(10-22-2018 06:09 PM)TechRocks Wrote:  

(10-22-2018 05:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.chron.com/news/politics/horseshoe/article/Harris-County-smashes-early-voting-record-13327145.php?utm_campaign=twitter

As of 4:30, 60 thousand early voters have cast ballots in Harris County, smashing the old record of 26K for a midterm election. It's also more than there were in 2012 (47K). I can't find the 2016 total for early voting yet.

Are you predicting a Beto win? If not, what's the point of giving us all the early voting numbers?

I don't think anyone here has said the dims would not be energized to vote this midterm. The country's never been more divided, one half loves what this president is accomplishing, the other hates him and what he's doing and has no ideas on how to advance the country.

Sounds like a fun election to me.

(10-22-2018 06:10 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(10-22-2018 06:07 PM)dfarr Wrote:  

(10-22-2018 05:58 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  https://www.chron.com/news/politics/horseshoe/article/Harris-County-smashes-early-voting-record-13327145.php?utm_campaign=twitter

As of 4:30, 60 thousand early voters have cast ballots in Harris County, smashing the old record of 26K for a midterm election. It's also more than there were in 2012 (47K). I can't find the 2016 total for early voting yet.

Early voting is dumb. People know for months when voting day is and can make the necessary accommodations.

I’ve read that it doesn’t really give any indication. And as polarized as we are it may just be a shift from Election Day. People don’t need two more weeks

(10-22-2018 05:54 PM)TechRocks Wrote:  

(10-22-2018 05:39 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I will be voting for Ted Cruz and praying to God that Beto does not win, or even come close. We don't need socialists/communists/collectivists/redistributionists representing Texas. Those are not our values.

Otherwise I will pretty much vote libertarian.