This is Beto O'Rourke and I'm running for governor in Texas.
I don't know that there's a more important moment, in a more important place than what's happening in Texas today.
It was 19 months ago when the power grid -- which Greg Abbott had been warned about -- absolutely failed us. The lights went out, the heat stopped running, and the water stopped flowing because it was frozen in the pipes for millions of Texans. More than 700 people died -- of hypothermia, carbon monoxide poisoning in their garages, and burning up in their homes as they set fire to their furniture trying to keep their kids warm.
During this crisis, Abbott pegged the price of electricity at its highest allowable rate for days and gas soon started trading at 200 times what it had sold for before. Abbott's biggest campaign contributors ended up making billions of dollars over the course of those five days. The kicker is that after all that happened, the grid is still not fixed, and we are all paying higher electricity and utility bills as a result.
This governor failed the most basic job of government, to keep the lights on in the energy capital of the world. Add to that, we now lead the nation in the number of school shootings, and gun violence is now the leading cause of death for kids and teenagers in the state of Texas.
This week marks 22 weeks since 19 kids and their two amazing teachers were killed in their classrooms by an 18-year-old who could legally buy not one but two AR-15s and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Five of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history have happened in the last five years, and the only thing that Abbott has done is make it easier for people who shouldn't have a weapon to buy a gun and carry them openly on our streets.
What may be most galvanizing for millions in this state is the extreme abortion ban that Abbott signed into law that just went into effect in August. It begins at conception with no exception for rape or incest. This is happening in a state that leads the country in this crisis of maternal mortality that is three times as deadly for Black women. We absolutely know this is going to cause more suffering and death in the state of Texas.
The challenges we face today are the greatest in living memory. But the way that Texans are responding is incredibly inspiring and fills me with optimism and a lot of confidence that we're going to win this fight on November 8th.
People are not accepting this, they're not submitting to it, and they're not succumbing to the temptation to despair. They're taking action and they're showing up.
Thank you,
-- Beto
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