Beto O’Rourke courts Dallas Black voters he’ll need to beat Texas Gov. Greg Abbott

According to an analysis by Texas Democrats after the election, “Black Texans continued to support Democrats overwhelmingly; however, on the margins, Republicans did better at turning out Black Republicans than Democrats did at turning out Black Democrats.”

Hence the need for better outreach from Democratic Party candidates to minority voters.

“If he shows that he’s willing to go wherever he needs to go to be able to connect with people, he’ll get more of us out to vote,” said Wanda Huckaby, a retired school principal from Dallas who attended the barbershop forum.

Others stressed that O’Rourke’s outreach couldn’t be a one-and-done scenario. He needs to keep showing up.

“He talked about those 400,000 nonvoters, many of whom are in DeSoto,” said Marcus King, senior pastor at DC3. “Having events here closer to the election will help. He knows how to speak to anybody, so that won’t be a problem.”

“Black folks have been the backbone of the Democratic Party, and we can’t take that for granted,” said Kardal Coleman, vice chairman of the Dallas County Democratic Party. “They have to be courted, just like your persuasion voters.”

If Friday night’s event is a gauge, O’Rourke and other candidates have work to do to maximize Black voter turnout. Outside the barbershop, organizers had registered only six voters by the end of the event. But O’Rourke’s team also signed up volunteers, which will help him with door-knocking as the campaign hits the stretch run.

Abbott, also mindful of turning out his conservative base, has canvassers contacting voters in Republican strongholds, as well as the Rio Grande Valley.

Dallas activist Dominique Alexander, founder of the Next Generation Action Network, said O’Rourke’s Shop Talk was needed because mining votes from communities of color is the key to beating Abbott.

“I’m not sold on spending too much time trying to get so-called persuadable voters,” he said, pointing to novel strategies he witnessed while helping Georgia Democrats in 2020. “You can be more effective turning out voters here, in our communities.”

Empowering communities of color

O’Rourke has found that many issues facing voters of color involve economic empowerment, better schools, access to quality health care and criminal justice reform.

At the Dallas barbershop and the DeSoto rally, O’Rourke stressed the need for more Black residents to own homes, which they could use to build equity to fund other economic opportunities, including developing businesses.

The Democrat said he would expand Medicaid to combat nagging comorbidities that shorten the lives of minority residents and to ease the maternal mortality crisis that is higher among Black women.

O’Rourke also said he would fight to preserve voting and reproductive rights, as well as stop discrimination against transgender residents.

“We want to make sure that you have an equal shot in the state of Texas,” he said.

“Let’s make sure that we are not found wanting in this moment of truth,” he added. “That’s why we’re here together today.”

Holding O’Rourke accountable

People who attended both events said they would hold O’Rourke to his promises.

“It’s great that he came out into the community vs. us going to him,” said Charles St. Amant, a 55-year-old systems administrator at a school district. “My big thing is, what are you going to do once we get you into office? Are you going to do like most Democrats have done in the past? Once you get in the big house, you ignore us.”

“Most people try to get our votes. But after we vote, we don’t see them anymore,” said Willie “Black” Horn, co-owner of Kutinfed. “So this event was very important. And if he doesn’t do what he said he will do, we will hold him accountable.”

O’Rourke pledged that he would return to their communities as governor.

“When we win this, I’ll be back right here to this very barbershop,” he said. “You hold me accountable. I guarantee it’ll make me a far better governor than I would otherwise be.”