Beto talks social issues at Norman campaign stop

Aug. 20--NORMAN, Okla. -- In a mix of university students and Norman residents packed into Volare Pizzeria Bar + Lounge on Monday were Brenda and Michael Guillen from North Texas.

It's certainly not the farthest they've gone to see Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke; places like Iowa and Minnesota carry that title. Brenda said her belief that O'Rourke can be president lies in how he discusses social issues.

"I think it's the humanity, the way he talks and feels about human issues," she said.

"Human issues" were front and center when O'Rourke took to the floor of the two-story Volare dining and bar area. With a capacity crowd gathered around him -- hanging over the railing of the second floor and even more snaking out the front door -- O'Rourke stuck to his platform for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination: immigration, gun control and women's reproductive rights.

He was introduced by Norman Mayor Breea Clark, who praised the display of voter engagement by Norman residents.

"I am so glad you're here, but unless you get to the polls, it doesn't make a difference," Clark said. "So thank you for your time, thank you for being engaged. Let this be the beginning of a wonderful presidential season in Norman, Oklahoma."

The Guillens said they've been following O'Rourke since his 2018 Senate campaign, when he narrowly lost to incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. On Monday, O'Rourke talked about that loss in a positive light, saying the momentum his campaign felt and the efforts of voters in the room can help take him a step further.

"That and 38 electoral college votes in Texas is how we defeat Donald Trump," O'Rourke said. "That's how we bring this divided country back together ... and we start it right here in Norman, Oklahoma."

Monday evening's rally capped a day spent by O'Rourke in Oklahoma's metro areas. He began in Tulsa, where he visited the Greenwood District and learned about the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.

"We have learned a lot," O'Rourke said. "This morning in Tulsa, in the neighborhood known as Greenwood, where Black Wall Street once stood, I got to hear about Oklahoma history, I got to hear about this country's story, the foundation of not only our greatness and success, but the hatred, the racism and the terror that still defines the lives of so many of our fellow Americans."

From there, O'Rourke's team made their way down Interstate 44 to Oklahoma City, where he went to The Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.

"People of Oklahoma City minding their own business at the federal building," O'Rourke said. "Kids in day care, public servants delivering for this community, this state and their country; 168 lives lost on that day, including little kiddos, infants and for what crime? That they, too, were part of a country still marred by racism, still dealing with white domestic and white supremacist terror, right here."

O'Rourke then transitioned to the recent shooting in El Paso -- his hometown -- and pointed to a rise in hate crimes in the past three years in the U.S. He then repeated some of his previous statements linking those statistics and the shooting with the divisive rhetoric of Trump.

"So I'll connect the dots for you, lest anyone should labor under the illusion that this was some kind of act of nature, some kind of act of God, that this was not foreseeable, that this was like a comet striking El Paso, or Oklahoma City or Greenwood in Tulsa," O'Rourke said. "It's not. These are human-caused problems with human solutions, and it is up to the humans of this great democracy, who at the end of the day are the government, to come up with them."

With members of Moms Demand Action, a pro-gun control group, present, O'Rourke said he wants to see universal background checks on gun sales and so-called "red flag laws," which enable law enforcement and justice officials to temporarily seize guns from someone who poses an immediate threat to themselves or others.

O'Rourke also said he wants to see the "end the sales of weapons of wars into our communities," presumably alluding to an assault weapons ban.

Stacey Wright, founder of the Yes All Daughters group that works to prevent occurrences of sexual assault and sexual violence in Norman, attended the rally as an undecided voter entering the Democratic primary. She said O'Rourke's gun control platform in Oklahoma at this time is significant.

"This visit right after El Paso, I think it is important given we are about to allow people to walk around carrying and displaying guns without a permit or a license," Wright said, referring to the permitless, or constitutional carry, law. "That's weighing heavy on all of us."

Following the rally, Moms Demand Action carried petitions for an effort to repeal the constitutional carry law in Oklahoma, which is set to take effect Nov. 1. The law would then go to a vote of the people.

The loudest cheer O'Rourke received was when he called for the right of "every woman to make her own decisions about her own body." The second loudest was his call to grant citizenship to both "Dreamers" -- undocumented immigrants who came to the country as children -- and migrant workers.

"Not only are we going to stop attacks on immigrants, no only are we going to stop trying to dehumanize, vilify and demonize them," O'Rourke said, "but we are going to lift them up by legalizing their presence in this country. That means every single Dreamer made a U.S. citizen in their true home country, the United States of America."

He also covered college debt -- which got another loud cheer from the University of Oklahoma student contingent of the crowd -- and the need to combat climate change. At one point, just as O'Rourke was transitioning to another point, a member of the crowd asked, "What about Native Americans?"

Without skipping a beat, O'Rourke launched into another part of his speech, citing the history of indigenous people in the country and calling for a united response.

"You had treaties that were violated, trust that was broken, land and oil wealth that was stolen, sometimes by murdering those who had the head rights or the mineral rights on their own land," he said. "If we do not first acknowledge that in the story of this country -- its success, its greatness, its failures -- then we are never going to ensure there is justice, we will never prevent the taking of lives going forward."

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