Beto O’Rourke lambasts Greg Abbott for border policies that are ‘hurting’ Texas economically

On orders from Gov. Greg Abbott, troopers for the Texas Department of Public Safety have been conducting enhanced inspections of commercial trucks entering Texas from Mexico. And former Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who is running against incumbent Abbott in Texas’ 2022 gubernatorial race, is arguing that Abbott’s “political stunt” is hurting Texas economically by making it harder for truckers to get fresh produce and other products into the United States.

On Tuesday, April 12, according to Texas’ KERA-AM, O’Rourke held a news conference at an empty warehouse in Pharr, Texas, blaming Abbott for the fact that the warehouse was empty.

O’Rourke told reporters, “This should be full of produce and imports that are going to be picked up by U.S. truckers to be taken deeper into this country. But as you can see, right now, it is empty. It’s going to make it harder to keep people employed, to hire people and to keep this economy going here locally and across the state of Texas.”

The Democratic gubernatorial nominee and former congressman was joined by two business owners: Joe Arevalo (who owns a warehouse), and Polo Chow (who owns a commercial trucking company).

Arevalo told reporters, “We’re living through a nightmare. We’re already suffering through a very delicate supply chain from the pandemic, and (we’re) just trying to regrow the business. The end result is that importers are going to leave. Importers that normally bring in hundreds of millions of dollars every year of business are going to start going to other ports.”

The warehouse owner added that some of his clients are considering bringing their goods into the U.S. via Arizona or California instead of via Texas.

O’Rourke told reporters, “I think that makes the case that Greg Abbott is good for Arizona, but he’s very bad for the state of Texas. He’s hurting the state of Texas right now.”

O’Rourke, after serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, had his first statewide race when he took on Sen. Ted Cruz in Texas’ 2018 U.S. Senate race. Cruz was narrowly reelected, defeating O’Rourke by 2% — and the fact that O’Rourke came within striking distance of a prominent GOP senator in a red state like Texas was one of 2018’s political shockers.

Although O’Rourke’s presidential campaign in 2020 was a disappointment, he handily won the nomination in Texas’ 2022 Democratic gubernatorial primary and is now competing with Abbott — who has been endorsed by former President Donald Trump — in the general election.