MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: 2018 Midterm Elections

Interview

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HAYES: The 2018 midterms have officially begun. Polls started to close in  the Texas primaries just under an hour ago, and while today`s votes are  still being counting, early voting suggestions the surge of Democratic  voters up 105 percent from 2014 across Texas`s 15 largest counties compared  to a 15 percent increase for Republicans, which means Democrats might  actually have a shot maybe at electing one of their own to statewide office  in Texas for the first time in a generation.

One of the big seats they are eyeing belongs to Republican Senator Ted  Cruz. He will likely be facing Democratic challenger Beto O`Rourke, a 45- year-old congressman from El Paso in November. And Beto O`Rourke joins me  tonight.

Ted Cruz had some words about you tonight that I wanted to read to you and  get your reaction. He says of you, Congressman O`Rourke is a left wing  liberal Democrat. He is running like Bernie  Sanders across the state and the voters of Texas will have a decision of  what policies and values reflect their own values.
Are you a left wing liberal Democrat?

REP. BETO O`ROURKE, (D) TEXAS: You know, I`m somebody who is doing my best  to represent my constituents in El Paso and now seeks to represent all 28  million of us in Texas. I`m going to every single part of the state. I`ve  been to 226 counties so far, listen to people in Lufkin and Houston, Austin  and Woodville, Amarillo, everywhere. Everyone deserves to be listened to  and to be heard and to be fought for. And I`m not asking party  identification, I`m talking about that the things that people are bringing  up in these town halls, making sure everyone can see a doctor, not as a  function of luck or circumstance but as something that they can depend on  so that they are healthy enough to go to school or got to work or start a  business or write a novel or whatever they are intended to do in life,  making sure everyone has got the education and the training and the  certification to command a job that  pays more than a living wage in Texas and making sure that our state, the  defining immigrant state, is the one that leads the country on immigration  going forward, not just stopping walls, but making sure that we make the  most out of everyone who is working in our communities today.

HAYES: Do you oppose the wall?

O`ROURKE: I do. It makes no sense at a time of record, safety and  security. And any wall that will be built in Texas will be built on the  land of ranchers and farmers and private property owners. We would have to  use the power of eminent domain to take that land from Texans to build a  wall that will cost $30 billion that we have no use for whatsoever.

HAYES: You know, it`s interesting to me. The president`s approval ratings  in the state of Texas, according to the Texas Politics Project, which is a  great state polling outfit, has it at 46 percent. That`s I think lower  than I would have guessed.

Why -- what do you make of the president`s current reputation in your home  state?

O`ROURKE: I don`t know, but what I`m hearing from folks in Texas as I  travel the state is we want no more of the fear or the pettiness or the  divisiveness. We want to move forward with the big things. We want to 
lead the way from going from the state with the lowest levels of health insurance, 4 million plus Texans cannot see a doctor to the one that leads the way in making sure that everyone can see a doctor.

We want to be the state that leads the way on immigration, and we want to  return our democracy to its roots, back to people. So, this is a campaign  that takes no PAC money, no special interest contributions from the NRA or  anyone else, and it is not just the right way to do things, it is a winning  strategy.

Those are the things that people in Texas are excited about right now, less  against anyone whether it`s Ted Cruz or Donald Trump, more for what we want  to achieve.

HAYES: Do you think politicians that take NRA money are tainted?

O`ROURKE: I do, because it makes people wonder who it is that that office holder is working for. Are they working for the NRA? You know, if you`re Ted Cruz and you received more than $300,000 from the NRA in 2016, then someone in Texas can be forgiven for wondering if you work for the NRA or the people of Texas.

When we take not a dime from the NRA or any political action committee, any  corporation, any special interest, folks in Texas know that I`m only  working for the people in Texas.

HAYES: Let me ask you this, there has been a lot of hope about turning  Texas blue, statewide office, Democratic office holders, Wendy Davis in the  last gubernatorial race. It has been very hard. And it`s clear what Ted  Cruz is going to do. He`s going to say, like, this guy is a Democrat.  He`s a liberal. We don`t like that here in Texas. You`re not going to  want to vote for him. Like that will be the message hammered over and over  again. And that message has been incredibly effective. Like what have  previous rounds of statewide candidates who get their butts kicked every  two years done wrong? Why will it be different this time?

O`ROURKE: So, two weeks ago we had just left a town hall in Wichita Falls,  stayed overnight in Archer City at the Spur Hotel. I`m walking across the  street the next morning to have a town  hall at Mern`s (ph) Restaurant in Archer City. And someone stops me on the  way in, takes out a black and white photograph of LBJ campaigning in Archer City in 1948.  And this guy says  that`s the last time, 70 years ago, that we saw a Senate candidate from  either party campaigning here. I hear that in La Grange. I hear that in  Woodville. I hear that in Coleman. I hear that throughout the state of  Texas. They haven`t seen anyone.

And so if you don`t show up and you don`t listen and you`re not fighting  for those people, then why in the world should they ever vote for you? And  that carries for places like Cashmere Garden in Houston or the Fifth Ward.  Every part of Texas deserves to be heard and listened to and fought for and  that`s why I`m showing up to every single part of Texas.

I don`t know that we`ve seen a campaign like that in Texas, at least in my  lifetime.

HAYES: All right, Congressman Beto O`Rourke, thanks for making time  tonight.

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