Gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke is set to host a town hall in Dallas on Wednesday, his first since the Uvalde mass shooting last week.
The town hall will be about protecting the lives of Texas children and will take place on Wednesday, 5:30 p.m.
O’Rourke will talk about Gov. Greg Abbott and the six mass shootings that have been seen in Texas under his watch, the campaign said.
O’Rourke is also expected to talk about other ways the Republican governor has failed Texas children; ongoing problems and scandals with the state’s foster care system, the uninsured rate and poverty among Texas children, as well as the winter freeze.
The town hall follows a major anti-gun violence rally attended by O’Rourke in Houston outside the NRA’s annual meeting. “The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Sandy Hook,” O’Rourke said at a rally on Friday. “The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Parkland. The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Santa Fe High School. The time for us to stop the next mass shooting in this country is right now, right here, it is today.”
Abbott did not attend the convention next door but did deliver a prerecorded message where he mourned the loss of life in Uvalde and said gun control laws would not have stopped the shooter. In Uvalde where the governor chose to go instead, Abbott promised community members “all options” were “on the table.”
The town hall also follows a viral confrontation between O’Rourke and the governor at a press conference a day after the shooting that saw the Democratic candidate tell Abbott, “this is on you” before being escorted out by police.
Original photo: Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons
Fernando covers Texas politics and government at the Texas Signal. Before joining the Signal, Fernando spent two years at the Houston Chronicle and previously interned at Houston’s NPR station News 88.7. He is a graduate of the University of Houston, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, and enjoys reading, highlighting things, and arguing on social media. You can follow him on Twitter at @fernramirez93 or email at fernando@texassignalarchive.com
