Beto O’Rourke, the first Texas gubernatorial candidate to visit Rockdale since the late 1960s, was in town on Friday night and drew crowds both for him and against him at The Kay Theater.
Inside the Kay was a standing room only crowd filled with about 200 people from all over Milam County and beyond.
O’Rourke, a Democrat, spoke on a variety of issues including school finance reform, teacher pay, property taxes, LGBT and abortion rights, as well as a fewRockdale and Milam County- specific issues like dealing with the loss of Alcoa as a job source and the closure of the hospitals in both Rockdale and Cameron.
A smaller group of protesters were outside enjoying their right to peacefully assemble and protest, which the vast majority did except for a few “who took things a bit too far,” according to one of the protesters.
The last gubernatorial candidate to speak in Rockdale was Jack Cox, who ran against Gov. John Conally for his second term.
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