Hey Team Beto, Rachel here! This week, Beto announced that when Donald Trump tries to bring his hate and division to Texas this month, Beto will be bringing leaders and members of the community together for a counter rally - to show that Trump’s racism and divisiveness has no place in America. We’ll dig deeper into it in this issue of Writing No One Off. Plus, we’ll talk with BFA National Press Secretary Aleigha Cavalier about what a 2020 campaign press operation looks like.
But before we get started, share this link with your friends and networks so they can get Writing No One Off delivered straight to their inboxes.
The big news this week was the announcement that on the same night President Trump holds a rally in Dallas, October 17, Beto will hold a counter rally - the Rally Against Fear.
The counter rally will bring the region, the state, and the country together to counter Trump and demonstrate that his hatred, division, harmful rhetoric, blatant lawlessness, and corruption has no place in America.
If you’re in the Dallas area, sign up to attend the rally - and bring your friends, family, and neighbors to show that our strength, vision, and unity is stronger than Trump’s racism and division.
Thursday’s event will be the second time this year that Beto has directly countered a Trump rally in Texas. Back in February, Beto brought together thousands in his hometown around a positive and ambitious message while Trump visited El Paso to attack immigrants and spread lies about the border.
Beto kicked off the week with his first trip to Arizona of the campaign, where thousands of voters and students packed town halls in Phoenix and Tucson to hear Beto discuss his vision for the country. As the Arizona Republic noted, Beto “electrified hundreds gathered around him at The Churchill [in Phoenix], drawn to his message of combating climate change, fighting against income inequality and calling for mandatory buyback of assault weapons” and spoke in both English and Spanish. Read the full story here and check out some photos of Beto’s barnstorming across Arizona:
Later in the week, Beto returned to Los Angeles, where he participated in the Human Rights Campaign/CNN Town Hall on LGBTQ+ equality. Beto has long been a champion of LGBTQ+ rights, dating back to his days on the El Paso City Council, where he championed the city’s first nondiscrimination ordinance, advocated for more sensitivity training for El Paso police, and voted to extend partner benefits to gay couples.
In the forum, Beto vowed to bring the voices and experiences of people across the LGBTQ+ community into his campaign and administration to achieve full equality, and discussed his commitment to confront the crisis of violence LGBTQ+ people - particularly transgender women of color - face in their communities.
Beto’s performance received widespread praise from viewers and leaders alike. Here are just a few of the reactions - and you can read Beto’s full plan to support LGBTQ+ Americans here.
On Friday, Beto released a comprehensive plan to tackle homelessness and increase affordable housing across America, inspired by his visit to Skid Row in Los Angeles last month and informed by communities across the country living with these challenges every day, such as LGBTQ+ youth, millennials, and communities of color. You can read Beto’s full plan here.
Amy also went out on the trail this week, where she met with voters in Houston and Dallas. Alongside Beto’s launch of his full plan to achieve women’s equality, Amy met with women voters, educators, and leaders in Houston to discuss women’s health, then traveled to Dallas where she spoke about the need to confront hate and racism at the Truth to Power Conference.
P.S. Make sure to follow our Director of Women’s messaging Anna Pacilio as she’s out on the trail with Amy.
Our campaign closed out the week with the announcement of our third quarter fundraising results and released a detailed plan on our plan to win the Democratic nomination, including a 6-week $2 million fundraising goal to fund our advertising and organizing programs. You can read the full plan online here, but here are some key highlights:
We raised $4.5 million in Q3 - that’s one million dollars more than we raised in the previous quarter. It also includes two weeks that we took off the campaign trail after the El Paso shooting and didn’t fundraise during that time.
Our campaign has seen significant growth after Beto’s bold stand in the last debate and after Beto’s leadership in the wake of the El Paso tragedy.
📈Nearly 20% of our donors gave to us for the first time this quarter,
📊We were third in the field in social media engagement.
And in the spirit of El Paso, we’ve raised over a million dollars this quarter for causes like the El Paso Memorial Fund, the ACLU of Mississippi, and down ballot candidates.
BUT, as many of you have seen, we’re stuck in a media trap, where the press continues to call this a two-person race. In reality, only 9% of voters have decided in this primary so far. That’s why last week we outlined our plan to win the nomination which you can read in full on our website.
We believe that Beto is primed for takeoff, but we need some heat to get us there. So check out our Plan to Win and help support our efforts to bypass the media trap and reach voters directly at https://betoorourke.com/plan-to-win/
If you’ve saved payment info with ActBlue Express, your contribution will go through immediately.
Give $5
Give $25
Other Amount
Here’s where Beto will be in the coming weeks 👀
October 15: Westerville, OH: Beto to participate in the Democratic Debate at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio.
October 17: Dallas, TX: Beto to hold Rally Against Fear in Dallas to counter Trump rally. RSVP here and bring your friends!
October 19: Birmingham, AL: Beto to deliver keynote remarks at the Alabama Democratic Conference’s Semi-Annual Convention
🧐Looking to take action with the campaign? You can find an event near you on our map 🗺. And be sure to check the map frequently, as new events are added daily!
At Beto for America, we talk a lot about how no matter who you are, where you’re from, or what your background, you’re in the right place on this campaign. But in order to get that message to voters across the country and build the grassroots movement to send Beto to the White House, we need to reach every voter - even those who have never before participated in a presidential election or don’t pay attention to the daily back and forth of politics.
That means reaching voters where they spend their time and through the platforms, networks, and media they’re already paying attention to. And this week, no matter if you’re a TV watcher, a newspaper reader, or a podcast listener, you were in the right place.
If you’re a TV watcher:
You probably saw Beto on discussing impeachment with Anderson Cooper this week…
...or heard him talk about LGBTQ+ equality at the HRC/CNN Equality Town Hall on Thursday.
If you tuned into your local nightly news:
You may have seen coverage of Beto’s counter rally to President Trump on October 17th (if we haven’t asked you enough, here’s one more plug to sign up to attend the rally)
If you prefer good, old fashioned, newspapers:
You might have come across a story in your local paper about Beto’s travels this week, or about the Rally Against Fear.
Associated Press: Beto O’Rourke looks past early primary states with Arizona rally
Arizona Republic: O’Rourke bashes president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric at Phoenix campaign stop
Associated Press: Beto O’Rourke plans counter-rally to Trump event in Texas
Dallas Morning News: Beto O’Rourke to stage counter rally during President Donald Trump’s visit to Dallas
If your native language is Spanish:
You can catch a feature interview in El Pais with Beto in both Spanish and English, where he discusses impeachment, immigration and ending gun violence:
If you listen to the radio on the regular:
You may have heard Beto on your drive to work on NPR’s Off Script, where Beto spoke with undecided voters in his hometown in El Paso, Texas. Listen to the drive-time version and you can even watch a full video of the conversation here:
If you’re a podcaster:
You can hear Beto talk impeachment on The Intercept’s Deconstructed podcast with Mehdi Hasan:
Or this kind of podcaster:
You can listen to Beto’s interview (and hear him play “Queen for a Day”) with Crooked Media’s Jon Lovett for this week’s episode of Lovett or Leave It.
Or this kind of podcaster:
Keep an eye out for Angela Rye’s On One podcast with Beto dropping soon, where Angela sat down with Beto in LA this week and discussed politics and pop culture.
Basically, Beto is speaking to everyone - and that doesn’t just mean in person. So let us know what your favorite media appearance of Beto’s was this week, and where you want to see or hear him next!
Since Beto was all over the airwaves, radio, TV and Twitterverse this week, I sat down with BFA’s National Press Secretary Aleigha Cavalier to chat more about what a campaign press operation is like when there are endless press outlets across the country - and whether she actually pays attention to news when she doesn’t have to.
P.S. follow Aleigha on Twitter to stay updated on all the latest news about Beto (she’s ~verified~ y’all!)
Q: What's your favorite type of media to consume?
A: I like to read my news. I think stories are told better on the page rather by pundits on cable. I'm still a stickler for hard copies of newspapers whenever I can get my hands on one!
Q: Do you read/pay attention to the news when you're on vacation?
A: Hard no. Twitter gets deleted.
Q: What’s the best answer you've heard Beto give to a reporter?
A: After the El Paso terror attack, we left Las Vegas to go straight to the hospital to visit shooting victims and their families. On the way out, we ran into a few reporters, and one asked Beto on the spot if he believed that Donald Trump's rhetoric was racist and was responsible for the violence. Without a beat, he responded "Yes." I'll never forget his leadership in that moment.
Q: What's a common misconception about your job?
A: That I can make the press write or say whatever I want them to about Beto! Reporters are real people with freedom of thought, although I try as hard as possible to make them see my point of view.
Q: If you weren't working in politics, what would you do?
A: Definitely would be working in music! Do they still hire MTV VJs?
With so much talk about news, we want to know where you get most of your information.
I’m a sucker for the nightly news
I still like the feeling of opening up a newspaper
There’s 24-hour cable news for a reason
Twitter is all I need
This campaign is powered by people. Help us reach more people by sharing this newsletter on Twitter or Facebook and click here to have it delivered directly to your inbox.
See you soon!
Rachel
@rachel_r_thomas