U.S. senatorial candidate and current Rep. Beto O’Rourke will host a town hall Sept. 9 at Texas State, continuing his visit to every county in Texas before the November midterm.
The event will take place in LBJ Student Center Ballroom on the third floor from 4- 6 p.m. and was organized by Interruptions, Hip Hop Congress, Jolt, Underrepresented Student Advisory Council, Latinas Unidas, NAACP, SCOPE, College Democrats and Lambda of Texas State University.
O’Rourke, a Democrat from El Paso, has been the U.S. representative for Texas’ 16th Congressional District since 2012. His platform on higher education issues revolves around an increased amount of funding to ensure college is affordable for all Texans. On immigration, O’Rourke’s platform aims to end the militarization of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and to pass the DREAM Act, which will ensure undocumented immigrants brought into the U.S. at a young age can have permanent residence and citizenship.
Rhett Parr, vice president of Interruptions and social work junior, estimates more than 600 Bobcats will fill the LBJ Student Center Ballroom in support of student-led organization, Bobcats for Beto.
“The faculty has been very hands off, so we’ve had a lot of autonomy,” Parr said. “It is open to the public, I just looked at the Facebook event and over 2,300 people have said (they are interesting in attending).”
The event isn’t sponsored by Texas State, but UPD will be on the scene. Interim Police Chief Capt. Rickey Lattie said the department has a plan to ensure a safe event.
“We have a National Incident Management System-compliant plan put together,” Lattie said. “Assigned staff will have various duties ranging from crowd control, stage security, to escort duty.”
There is no need for attendees to RSVP to join. Admission will be based on merit of arrival, with staged overflow space featuring streaming of the event to meet building capacity codes.
“We are expecting a lot of people at this event,” Lattie said. “We don’t want to make this event a police state presence, but there will be people to intervene in any small-scale disturbances.”
Micah Traylor, president of Hip Hop Congress and sociology sophomore, said the event will be as bipartisan as possible.
“There hasn’t been any safety issues noted at any of the Beto town hall events across Texas,” Traylor said. “However, there is a plan in place.”
Residents can check their voter registration status with the Texas Secretary of the State. Students and residents can register to vote in San Marcos and Hays County by filling out the Voter Registration Application on Hays County’s website, which has more information on voting by mail, early voting and eligibility.
“So many students aren’t aware of how to register to vote, hopefully we can get that handled at the voters’ tables” Parr said. “If students get out to vote, it will be a game changer.”