At Texas convention, Democrats cast 2022 elections as a new civil rights battle

Democrats Julián Castro and Beto O’Rourke used their speeches at the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas on Friday to conjure up past Texas political leaders like Gov. Ann Richards, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and President Lyndon B. Johnson as evidence of what lies ahead if they can break the grip Republicans have held on the state for the last 30 years. O’Rourke, who is running for governor against Gov. Greg Abbott, said those leaders of the past had to fight for civil rights, women’s rights and other freedoms that now are under attack from Republicans. “My fellow Democrats, we are the heirs to their service, to their sacrifice and their struggle and what we do with this inheritance will determine our future,” O’Rourke told a crowd of several thousand delegates at the convention. “Everything that we care about is on the line.”

O’Rourke said improving poll numbers since December — several recent surveys have shown him about 6 percentage points behind Abbott — and the energy he’s seeing as he campaigns around the state indicate that Democrats have a real chance at winning in November. “I feel it as I travel this state and I see it in everything we can measure,” he said. Just before O’Rourke took the stage, Castro reminded Democrats of what it was like to have Richards as governor in the early 1990s. He talked about the state’s legacy of Democratic leaders who want to help all Texans, no matter their background. “I remember a time when we had leadership in this state that actually cared about everybody,” said Castro, who recalled having met Richards when he was a teenager.