EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke stopped in El Paso on Wednesday evening on Aug. 20, to host a rally before dozens of democratic voters.
The event was held at The Elmont Event Center’s Grand Ballroom, located at 240 W. Castellano Dr.
O’Rourke was joined by Democrat U.S. Representatives Veronica Escobar, Jasmine Crockett, and Joaquin Castro. They all spoke out against the Trump Administration’s policies and rallied voters to turn their attention to next year’s midterm elections.
“The balance of power in the United States House of Representatives, and the future of this country, is going to be decided over the next 15 months. If we can win a majority, we don’t have to pick up many seats; then there will be a check on Trump’s lawlessness. There will be accountability for his crimes and corruption,” O’Rourke said. “In order to win that power, we’ve got to pick up districts like District 23, which is in San Antonio and El Paso.”
The rally was held just hours after the Texas House of Representatives finally approved a controversial redistricting map, which Democrats had tried to halt by breaking quorum earlier this month.
With Texas Republicans now a step closer to having the redrawn map approved and obtaining the five seats in the U.S. House that President Trump has called for, O’Rourke said this is just the start of a months-long battle.
“Even if they redraw these congressional districts in Texas, which it looks like they will, we can still win there. We just have to organize. We just have to hustle. We just have to fight. We just have to put all of the work in over these next 15 months, and all of us are going to do that work,” O’Rourke said.
The rally also occurred just hours after a judge from the 41st District Court in El Paso issued a temporary restraining order against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, preventing him from prosecuting O’Rourke’s political organization, Powered by People, and revoking its charter for the time being.
“Those of us Powered by People who have started one of the largest voter registration organizations in the country, in the state where it is harder to cast a ballot or to register to vote than in any other in the union. An organization that has also been supporting this fight to stop the stealing of these five congressional seats. That fight has brought the wrath of Ken Paxton on our back, who sued us in Tarrant County Court to try to put us out of business,” O’Rourke said.
“We did not react. We didn’t respond. We didn’t fight back. We got off the back foot onto the front. Off of defense, on to offense, and we took the fight to him. We sued him here in El Paso, and thanks to our amazing attorney Lynn Coyle, we defeated Ken Paxton,” O’Rourke said.
O’Rourke and Paxton have been entangled in legal battles and a war of words in the past few weeks over the redistricting map pushed by Texas House Republicans. And now a recent poll by Texas Southern University shows that they are each the leading popular candidate among potential voters to represent their parties in next year’s 2026 U.S. Senate midterm elections.
After the rally, however, O’Rourke maintained he is not focused on running for any office at the moment.
“I’m not focused on running for any office. I’m focused on the work we’re doing now, which is registering Texans to vote, fighting this power grab where Donald Trump is trying to steal five congressional seats because he knows there’s no other way that he can hold on to power and win elections in 2026,” O’Rourke said.
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