Beto O’ Rourke rallies in San Francisco

By Alli Weseman, PHOTO EDITOR


On a stage set in the middle of San Francisco’s Irish Cultural Center, people craned their necks and packed in tight to hear Texas Democratic Presidential Candidate Beto O’Rourke speak.
O’Rourke stopped in the famously liberal city on April 28 to address voters and explain why he is best suited to take on President Trump in the 2020 Presidential election.
“All of us are here not because of a person or a candidate or a political party, we’re here for this country that we love so much that faces the greatest challenges that we have seen in our lifetimes,” O’Rourke said. “We have a country that threatens to send 1 million dreamers back to a country they do not know, whose language they do not speak where they do not have family and where they’re successful against those long odds, they will be successful for that place, not here in San Francisco, not in California, not the United States of America.”
In his speech, O’Rourke called for a new a voting rights act “so that every person’s vote counts; same-day voter registration, automatic voter registration.”
“You turn 18, you’re ready to vote. Your voice is reflected.”
People began to get in line around 9:30 a.m. to see the former Texas House of Representative, with many wearing t-shirts and hats saying “Beto 2020.”
Prior to his speech, O’Rourke thanked everyone that helped during his Senate campaign in 2018.
While Beto ultimately failed to defeat Ted Cruz for his Senate seat, he found a strong core of supporters around the United States, particularly in the Golden State that were waiting for him to announce his candidacy for President.
Although he didn’t lay out any particular policy points, he told the crowd that he wants to “see all of them live up to their full potential.
“I want you to start a punk rock band and tour the country if that is what you were put on the planet to do,” said O’Rourke.
O’Rourke announced his first policy proposal, a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change during a stop in Yosemite on Monday.
“The plan calls for increasing taxes on corporations and ending the tens of billions in dollars given to fossil fuel companies,” according to the Associated Press.
In addition, the plan would include $1.5 trillion in direct federal funding and $3.5 trillion from states, private capital, and other sources to improve aging infrastructure nationwide and to take “significant actions to defend communities” from the effects of climate change that have already begun, according to the Associated Press.
“I don’t care to whom you pray or who you love. How many generations you’ve been in this country or whether you just got here this morning. All that matters to me is that we are Americans first, we have these challenges before us and we will overcome them,” said O’Rourke.