MANCHESTER, N.H. — On a weekend when Immigration and Customs Enforcement planned to conduct a series of coordinated raids in at least 10 major cities, former Texas Congressman Beto O'Rourke, whose presidential campaign is laboring near the bottom of the polls after his poorly-rated debate performance last month, delivered an impassioned call to "rewrite our immigration laws in our own image."
At a Manchester Democrats potluck picnic, held in a public park before a gathering of a hundred local elected officials, activists and neighborhood residents, O'Rourke described conditions at the Clint Border Patrol Facility outside his home city of El Paso. He said the children detained at the center are sleeping "on concrete floors, under aluminum blankets" and called attention to the deaths of migrant children in American custody across the country.
"Over the course of the last year, six children, kiddos, at their most vulnerable and desperate died in the custody of the wealthiest, the most powerful country on the face of the planet," he said.
O'Rourke also sharply criticized the family separation policy of the Trump administration, telling the crowd that he has witnessed the reunification of parents with children who have been traumatized by the experience and no longer react to their mother or father. "There is nothing on that face, absolute vacant expression," he said.
The intense and deeply emotional message from O'Rourke on immigration in his relatively short speech previewed the style of his longer question-and-answer session, when he turned the microphone over to voters and encouraged them to bring their stories into the conversation. Several responded to the call, sharing personal stories of struggles with discrimination, medical bills and addiction.
Patrick Moran, a O'Rourke supporter who attended with his grandfather James Moran from Hudson, Massachusetts, told the former Texas Congressman that he was almost in the Guinness Book of World Records for being born 23 weeks early. He said he is active in the premature birth community and has heard from others about their difficulties with high health care costs. He expressed frustration that his Republican friends "don't seem to care."
In his response, O'Rourke shed light on a strategy of his campaign, an approach that guided his nearly successful bid for Senate against incumbent Texas Senator Ted Cruz. The English major and former rock musician thanked Moran for sharing his story and argued that personal stories like his, not detailed policy plans, would persuade people over time.
"The statistics, the numbers, sometimes the facts can become an abstraction for people," O'Rourke said. "When we all listen to you and meet you, we're brought into your story and we care about you."
Moran, who said "I could tell by his eyes" that he was "genuinely surprised," said O'Rourke's ability to connect with people was his greatest strength. "It means a lot when a candidate is genuine and not just taking questions to further their vote," Moran said.
His grandfather, James Moran, agreed that O'Rourke was "inspiring" and "really energizing" in person. The elder Moran, who also described O'Rourke as his first choice, however acknowledged that their candidate did not bring the same energy to the first debates. "I hope at the next debate he talks like he did today," he said.
While the more informal format of the event played to O'Rourke's strengths, the former Texas Congressman demonstrated more than energy and emotion at the picnic. He was knowledgable about New Hampshire issues.
He told state legislators that "we will overcome" a veto that blocked a bill to raise the minimum wage, cited that New Hampshire has the highest level of student indebtedness in the country and spoke about the toxic chemical PFAS, which has contaminated the drinking water of several Manchester suburbs and led to higher rates of pediatric cancer.
"When I think about those kids who face those challenge, it's not so unlike those kids on the border in my community," he said.
Wyatt Ronan, the New Hampshire communications director for O'Rourke, said that his candidate is always willing to listen and learn. "Beto is really committed to talking to regular people," Ronan said. He continued that O'Rourke frequently takes a notepad with him to campaign events to jot down ideas from the people he meets. "That notepad isn't for show," he said.
O'Rourke closed with his philosophy on putting the stories of parents and children, whether in the Manchester suburbs or in a west Texas migrant detention facility, at the center of his campaign.
"By knowing their stories, repeating them, reflecting them in how we campaign, in how we serve, we bring this very divided, highly polarized country back together again in service of meeting the greatest challenges we've ever faced," he said.
This work is made possible by the Russell H. Bostert Memorial Fellowship at Williams College.
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