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Beto O'Rourke: “We got within two and a half points of Ted Cruz.”

Featuring: Beto O'Rourke, Democratic | Former Candidate, Governor of Texas

Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke

Published August 13, 2025 | Video Starts at 05:05

And at the end of the day, we won more votes than any Democrat, first since LBJ in 1964, to win the five major urban areas and their surrounding counties. Young voter turnout up 513%. We got within two and a half points of Ted Cruz. But more importantly, 12 insurgent Democrats defeated 12 incumbent Republicans for the state House. Biggest sea change we'd seen there in a very long time. (05:05–05:08)

CLAIM

Asserts that his Senate campaign came within 2.5 percentage points of Ted Cruz.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Beto O'Rourke

“Young voter turnout up 513%.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 05:02-05:05
“It's the largest binational community in the Western Hemisphere, maybe the largest binational community in the world.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 17:31-17:38
“By the numbers, it's one of the safest cities in America. Some years it was, bar none, the safest city in the United States of America.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 18:45-18:53
“Entry into this country, illegal entry into this country is at an all-time low.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 24:59-25:05
“In Texas, you can't use your student ID at the University of Texas at Austin to prove who you are at the polling place, but you can use your…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 38:22-38:32
“Texas leads the nation in school shootings.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 42:00-42:03
“That weapon [AR-15] was originally designed for use on the battlefields in Vietnam to penetrate an enemy soldier's helmet at 500ft.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 42:34-45:02
“We took no PAC money and, and not corporate PAC money, but also not liberal PAC money, no Planned Parenthood, no Sierra Club, just, just…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 04:35-04:45
“We went to each of the 254 counties of Texas.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 04:49-04:52
“We won more votes than any Democrat, first since LBJ in 1964, to win the five major urban areas and their surrounding counties.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 04:53-05:03
“12 insurgent Democrats defeated 12 incumbent Republicans for the state House.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 05:09-05:14
“Two Democrats defeated two incumbents, incumbent entrenched, well funded Republicans for the United States Congress.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 05:16-05:23
“In Houston, Texas, the most diverse City In America, 17 black women won election to judicial positions.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 05:26-05:34
“In 2018, I won the votes of those cast by people born in Texas.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 08:05-08:13
“Ted Cruz beat me with people who had moved to our state from California and other places.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 08:16-08:23
“In 22, I was taken on Greg Abbott, who outspent me nearly 2 to 1.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 09:34-09:41
“Ken Paxton is the Attorney General for the state of Texas. He has been indicted twice under active FBI investigation.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 11:08-11:18
“He [Mandani] meets the needs of those that he wants to serve clearly with well-defined policy positions.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 11:12-50:23
“He was impeached by the state legislature for alleged crimes that he had committed.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 11:17-11:24
“A state legislature dominated by Republicans of his own party.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 11:23-11:29
“He is deeply popular with the most extreme magasite side of the Republican base in Texas.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 12:18-12:26
“His effort to incite an insurrection against the country's government in which he serves to try to overturn a lawfully, fairly…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 13:53-14:05
“The previous administration and their Department of Justice didn't prosecute those, like Donald Trump or like Ted Cruz, who are responsible…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 14:23-14:36
“Donald Trump, once he is in office, pardoned each and every single one of them, including the ones, especially the ones who beat those cops…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 14:52-15:02
“El Paso is pretty geographically and politically isolated from the rest of the country.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 16:58-17:03
“It's safe not in spite of the fact that we are a city full of immigrants. It's safe because we are a city full of immigrants.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 20:22-20:31
“There's a correlation between immigrants making our communities better, stronger, and, yes, safer as well.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 20:34-20:43
“ICE was already going into our communities with plain clothes, masked agents sweeping people off the street without badges or warrants.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 23:43-23:56
“Illegally detaining, imprisoning, in many cases, deporting people, in some cases to a gulag in El Salvador notorious for torture and…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 23:55-24:16
“They're having a hard time finding enough immigrants to deport in these big sweeps through American cities.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 24:59-25:05
“I'd also remind folks that this stuff is deeply unpopular on immigration, arguably Trump's signature policy issue.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 27:54-28:02
“It's legal. Doesn't make it right. But they're essentially, this is a process by which members of Congress get to choose their Voters…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 28:31-28:41
“He literally ordered Greg Abbott and Texas Republicans there find me five new Republican seats.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 29:16-29:22
“This is done through computers, not through people to maximize partisan advantage for one party.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 30:34-30:42
“Republicans fear that [voters under the age of 30] will lose that power.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 36:27-36:30
“One Dropbox. In. In that, that rule, that law was imposed by the governor and the state legislature in the middle of COVID a pandemic that…”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 38:49-39:06
“23 people in my community had just been killed because it is perfectly legal in this country to buy an AK47.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 39:42-39:49
“This 18 year old who just turned 18 bought an AR15 and took it into an elementary school and shot kids in the face and killed them.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 40:54-41:05
“You have to pass a background check if you buy from a federally licensed gun shop.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 42:42-42:48
“In Texas, you can buy that same weapon out of the trunk of someone's car in a person-to-person sale and there's no check whatsoever.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 42:47-42:55
“Eight people died in Midland, Odessa because we didn't have a background check.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 42:54-42:58
“You could buy two or more if you want to, AR15s, hundreds of rounds of ammunition.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 44:46-44:53
“Democrats are always reactive and on the defense against Donald Trump.”
Is Texas Still a Democracy? with Beto O’Rourke | Uploaded August 13, 2025 | 50:26-50:30
“Gavin Newsom and his idea of redistricting... may be a harbinger of some offense that we're going to start playing.”
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