Powered by People, the political action committee Beto O’Rourke runs instead of a 2026 campaign, has 106 in-person events and 27 virtual ones on its calendar between today and Election Day, in 22 Texas cities.
Bernie Sanders headlines two of them this week. He appears at a Fighting Oligarchy volunteer event in El Paso on Monday, then in Houston on Tuesday afternoon with Rep. Greg Casar and O’Rourke.
O’Rourke is going to seven campuses himself over the following two weeks. He opens at UH Downtown on Oct. 20, hits UH Main and Texas Southern on the 21st, Rice on the 22nd, El Paso Community College on the 23rd, UTEP on the 28th, and finishes at SMU on the 29th.
Campuses are where most of the work is. Texas Tech has eight voter registration shifts booked before Nov. 3. Texas State San Marcos has six and UTSA has five. Volunteers are working five Austin Community College campuses, plus Lone Star College CyFair, Northwest Vista, St. Philip’s, Houston City College and UNT Denton.
The rest of it happens wherever people already are. Volunteers are registering voters at the Aldine Sunny Flea Market in Houston, a drag brunch in Arlington, Afro Fest Dallas, the Dallas Soul Food Fest, an Empanada Festival, ARToberFEST in Galveston, a pumpkin patch at Royal Lane Baptist Church, a Los Texmaniacs concert, emo night at Barbs in Houston, and Nightmare on Calder in Beaumont. There are block walks in Ennis and dawn canvasses in Sugar Land for James Talarico.
Three of the events are rallies for other Democrats: Talarico in Plano on Oct. 18 and at UNT Denton on the 19th, and Gina Hinojosa at Texas State the same day.
Fourteen paid organizers cover eight regions, from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley. Óscar Silvia, the senior director of organizing strategy, runs the Panhandle and East Texas himself. One job, the northern Metroplex, is open. Beneath them, 42 named hosts are running the events, most of them volunteers.
Small-dollar donors pay for it. About $4.5 million of the $6.5 million individuals have given this cycle came in amounts under $200. None of it has gone to television. The committee reports no money spent for or against any candidate, so it goes to the organizers and the events.
There is a lot riding on that this year. The Senate race between Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton has stayed close, and recent polling puts Hinojosa in a statistical tie with Gov. Greg Abbott.
(Photo: Beto O’Rourke, via Beto O’Rourke Facebook)