Beto O'Rourke holds a rally in El Paso, TX. #Beto2020

Beto O'Rourke holds a rally in El Paso, TX.

Congresswoman Veronica Escobar takes the stage to welcome everyone to El Paso. #Beto2020

Beto Said that -It is here, from my hometown of El Paso, that I officially launch this campaign to serve you as the next President of the United States of America.This is a campaign for America. For everyone in America. No one written off, no one taken for granted.Like so many of you, Amy and I have decided that at this moment of truth we must give it our all. This moment is our test - the generations that follow ours, the people of the future, are counting on us - and we cannot be found wanting.The challenges before us are the biggest of our lifetimes. Millions without healthcare; an economy that works too well for too few and not at all for too many; & the opportunity to avert the worst consequences of climate change fading in the face of our inaction. We must overcomeFor too long in this country, the powerful have maintained their privilege at the expense of the powerless. They have employed fear and division — based on differences in race or ethnicity, geography and faith — to keep us apart, and angry and afraid of one another.Unrestrained, money and influence have warped this country’s priorities and its very democracy. It has corrupted our democracy. It has invited cynicism, distrust and disengagement from Americans who see a government in thrall to those who can pay for access and outcomes.A vigorous democracy - both economic and political - is the only check on the inertia of power, on the corruption and capture of our institutions, and the only means to elevate the voices and lives of our fellow Americans.The differences between us — where we live, who we love, to whom we pray, how long our families have been in this country, the color of our skin, the party to which we belong — those differences cannot be allowed to define us or divide us now. Let us be Americans first.These challenges and the threats to our democracy cannot be met by half measures or with only half the country. It’s gonna take all we’ve got and it’s gonna take all of us.If we believe in universal, guaranteed, high quality healthcare - because we see the consequences to our fellow Americans who go without - then let us come together around a solution.Universal healthcare means everyone gets primary healthcare, mental healthcare — and universal care also means that every woman makes her own decisions about her own body.This means every one of us is able to afford our prescriptions, see a doctor, take our children to a therapist. No one priced out. No one denied care. No one left behind. Universal, guaranteed, high quality health care must be achieved as quickly and as surely as possible.If we believe in an economy that works for all, then let us invest in a world class Pre-k through 12 public education system and ensure that we are paying our educators a living wage so that they don’t have to work a second or third job.Let’s graduate young women and men from high school who are career ready as well as college ready, able to pursue debt-free higher education or a job that provides purpose and a real paycheck. We can do this.Let’s not diminish the power of unions in this country. Let's strengthen unions in this country and ensure a path to apprenticeships and careers. Guarantee that one job is enough by paying every working American a true living wage.Let’s support rural America by listening to and partnering with rural communities on infrastructure, schools, hospitals, & broadband. Let’s make sure farmers can make a profit while they grow the food & fiber that feeds and clothes not just this country, but so much of the world.Let’s ensure everyone can succeed regardless of their family dynamics, their gender, their sexual orientation or their race. Paid family leave. Equal pay for women. No discrimination in the workplace, and access to capital for communities that have been shut out for generations.If we believe in real justice reform in the face of the largest prison population on the face of the planet — one disproportionately comprised of people of color — let us not just end the prohibition of marijuana but expunge the record of those arrested solely for possession.Let’s end cash bail, private prisons, and the war on drugs. Let's confront the true legacy of slavery, of segregation, suppression, of how people have been criminalized & kept down based on their race and ethnicity. Only that truth will allow us to begin to repair the damage done. If we believe that this country’s success is premised on the fact that immigrants and asylum seekers from the world over have found a home here, then let us forever free Dreamers from any fear of deportation by making them U.S. citizens.Let’s bring millions more of our fellow Americans out of the shadows and on to a path to contribute even more to our country’s success.Let’s not only honor our asylum laws and never again take another child from another parent at their most desperate and vulnerable moment, but guarantee that all separated families are reunited.Let’s ensure our security not through walls and militarization, but by investing in our ports of entry where the vast majority of everything and everyone that ever comes into this country first enters.And if we’re serious about security, let this country of immigrants - republicans, independents and democrats  - rewrite our immigration laws in our own image, from our own experiences, and in the best traditions of this great country.Let us not only ensure that we meet every single part of our obligation to our veterans but that we also make sure that before we enter yet another war that we have exhausted every single peaceful alternative.And if the wars we are already in don't have a definition of victory or strategy to win them and bring these service members back home to their families and their communities, we must put an end to them.Let us organize this country around a historic effort to free this economy from a dependence on greenhouse gas emissions, invest in the technologies and jobs in renewable energy that will speed this transition, and reassert our international leadership before it is too late.We have an opportunity now to meet an existential threat to this planet by ensuring that public health policy, economic policy, and the engine of a far more conscientious capitalism is put to work in service of our ability to meet this challenge of climate change.And when we talk about combatting climate change, it is important that this work ensures that every American benefits, including those poor and minority communities that have so often borne the brunt of climate change.This country can and must once again take its place as the indispensable leading nation, doing what no other country can, for ourselves and for the world.But if we want to do any of this — let us agree that our success as a country is based on the success of this democracy, the greatest mechanism devised to bring forth the power of people.So every citizen must be able to cast their vote, have their voice heard. We must sign into law a new voting rights act, we must forever banish big money from our politics, end gerrymandering, and enact same day voter registration in every part of the country.Let us also acknowledge that any hope of full political democracy must be premised on an unwavering pursuit of economic democracy. Every child must see a future for themselves in this country.The unprecedented concentration of wealth, power and privilege in the United States must be broken apart. Opportunity must be fully shared with all. We must all have the opportunity to succeed. Together. As one country.Si queremos enfrentar los retos de cuidado de salud por todos; de la reforma migratoria; del cambio climático —necesitamos una democracia en que cada persona puede votar y ofrecer su voz.Pero también necesitamos una economía donde todos pueden participar, y tener un prospecto de éxito independiente de su genero, de su raza, de los cuantas generaciones su familia tiene a dentro o aparte de los estados unidos.El exito de este pais depende en el exito de cada persona en este pais.Let us be clear: we will not be defined by our fears or the smallness of our differences; we will instead be known by our ambitions, our aspirations and the resolve, the creativity, the service and sacrifice by which we will have achieved them.Our ability to campaign this way as a campaign run for & by people - no PACs, no corporations - people from every state & territory — can bring us together not just in defeating Trump, but in ensuring that we have the full power of people to accomplish this country’s priorities.I am honored to run to serve you as President of the United States; and I am grateful to each one of you who will join this campaign and commit yourself in service to this great country of ours.Together, as one country united, we can fulfill the promise of America, to ourselves, to each other, and to every generation that succeeds us.