AUSTIN, Texas — Ahead of the Texas gubernatorial race in 2022, Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke announced a statewide drive and plans to visit over 20 cities in the span of 12 days.
O'Rourke has titled the drive "Keeping the Lights On: A Statewide Drive for a Brighter Texas,” to mark the one-year anniversary of the state's electric grid collapse. Locations along the drive include El Paso, Odessa, Abilene, Wichita Falls, Denton, Tyler, Waco, Austin, San Antonio, Laredo, McAllen, Corpus Christi and Houston.
O'Rourke joined KVUE's Ashley Goudeau on Monday amid his announcement. Here is a look at their conversation:
Goudeau: In today's announcement, you were very critical of Gov. Greg Abbott even going so far as to say he "let the grid fail." What things would you have done if you had been governor last year?
O'Rourke: You know, Gov. Abbott was warned repeatedly after grid failures in 2011 and 2014 that we had serious vulnerabilities. He didn't listen to the experts and has failed to do anything since the collapse last February. Here's what I'm going to do as governor: we're going to make sure that every aspect of the grid, including the gas supply, which was the primary factor in the collapse in February, is fully weatherized so we never have a collapse again. I want to make sure we're interconnected to the national grid, so that when we have an emergency or an extreme weather event, we can draw down power from other parts of the country. And instead of having ratepayers pay what I'm calling the "Abbott tax" ... the $20 to $50 additional per month on your utility bills, I'm going to send money back down to the ratepayer. And I want to make sure that we have the resources to invest in weatherization and energy efficiency, so that we lower utility bills and also improve total reliability of the grid. Three important steps that I'm going to take as governor to make sure that we never have a tragedy like this one again.
Goudeau: I want you to talk to us a little bit more about being connected to the national grid. That's one of the things that has gotten a lot of pushback from Republican lawmakers, saying that with that comes some federal regulation. Talk to us about the obvious obstacles you would face in getting that done.
O'Rourke: It was interesting. We heard Abbott ally and former Gov. Rick Perry say, essentially, that Texans would rather freeze to death than have that access to national power. In fact, in the Greater Austin area, 28 people lost their lives, including elderly Austinites who froze to death in assisted living centers. We should never have to pay that price for that kind of incompetence again. And so, yes, let's take reasonable steps like connecting to the national grid, which, by the way, every other state does to ensure that we never have the tragic loss of life and the loss of power for millions of people. I'm transmitting right now from El Paso, Texas. We are not part of ERCOT and, as a consequence of that, we did not lose power last February. There are things that we can learn from the parts of Texas that didn't have the disaster that we saw. And I want to make sure that we take those reasonable, responsible steps to guarantee that the lights stay on going forward.
Goudeau: You know, I do want to ask you, we have a very long road to November here. In fact, we're not even done with the primary. So throughout this campaign, how are you going to combat people seemingly using some of your previous statements against you, as they would say?
O'Rourke: I'm going to make sure that people know that we're focused on the big things that can bring us together, especially at a time that all of us are sick of the divisions and being pitted against one another. So things like making sure that the best jobs in America are created here in Texas, or that we focus on and fund world-class public schools. Maybe start by canceling the STAAR test this year, so that we don't have any more high stakes or high pressure for our kids who've been through so much, or our teachers. Then, move forward on common-sense things like expanding Medicaid, so that more people can see a doctor. And we reduce property tax bills, as a local homeowner no longer has to subsidize uncompensated care in our county hospitals. These are things that bring Republicans and Democrats and Independents together. They unify us, and we need more of that in Texas right now if we're going to be able to move forward.
Goudeau: You know, focusing on that platform, obviously, very important for you. But you are presumably running against Gov. Greg Abbott, who has wasted no time in putting out ads using some of your statements ... I mean, we're talking about guns, when we're talking about the border, when we're talking about climate change, what's your message to Texans who are not going to forget those comments, and they're going to hear them a lot between now and November?
O'Rourke: You know, if I were Greg Abbott, I would also try to distract the people of Texas, so that they wouldn't remember that I let them down in February when hundreds died, because the governor literally could not keep the lights on. Or let us all down again when he failed to weatherize the grid and looked out for his biggest campaign donors, like Kelcy Warren, who made $2.4 billion on the suffering of our fellow Texans in February and wrote Greg Abbott a $1 million check after that event. Or the fact that on the things that matter most to us, like the quality of our schools or the kinds of jobs that we can find in our communities. He is failing each and every single Texan. His extreme, right-leaning agenda of banning abortion, putting a $10,000 bounty on the head of anybody who assists any woman in making her own reproductive health care choices ... permitless carry that allows anyone to carry a loaded gun in public. These are not the values of our state. They are not the things that bring us together. And so I'm going to remind people that we can focus on great jobs, world-class schools and expanding Medicaid, or we can keep going with the culture wars and the incompetence and the corruption of Greg Abbott.
Goudeau: We do want to point out that on this tour of Texas, you're going to be stopping in Austin, tell us when that's happening.
O'Rourke: We're going to be in Austin a little bit later this week, and we're looking forward to being with people highlighting stories of those who stand up for one another, even when their government fails them and talk about how we keep this from happening again. I'm really proud of the people of Austin and the city and county government of Austin and Travis [County], Texas, who made sure that even if the governor was not there for them, they were going to be there for one another. And it's a great chance for us to remind each other what happened and why it happened and then what we're going to do to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
KVUE reached out to Gov. Greg Abbott's campaign requesting an interview about the grid, and we did not hear back. However, the governor is going to be receiving a briefing and holding a news conference on Feb. 1.
Earlier this month, O'Rourke announced he had raised $7.2 million in the first 46 days of his campaign. Meanwhile, Republican incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott raked in $18.9 million over the last six months, according to a report from The Texas Tribune. It added to Abbott's war chest worth more than $65 million, the Tribune reported.
Abbott has put parental rights at the center of his reelection platform. Last week, Abbott made a pitch that he wants to solidify parental rights as an amendment to the Texas Constitution.
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