SAN ANTONIO – Second Gentleman of the United States Douglas Emhoff spoke on Monday at a Democratic campaign rally in San Antonio pushing the message that voting matters.
“Right here in Texas, you have the power,” Emhoff said. “Make your voices heard up and down the ballot.”
The rally focused on the “Freedom to Vote” after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against Bexar County commissioners regarding voter registration plans.
The rally intended to push back against Texas Republicans’ efforts to suppress voter turnout, Democrats said.
“We’re ready to defend your right to vote and we’re ready to protect the win,” Emhoff said.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said Emhoff raised more than $1 million at a San Antonio fundraiser for Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign Monday night. Nirenberg said this was the largest presidential fundraiser in the city’s history.
San Antonio attracted national attention after Paxton searched the homes of several Latino political organizers as part of a probe into alleged voter fraud.
The League of United Latin American Citizens and Texas Democrats considered the searches as voter intimidation, calling on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Paxton.
Several well-known Texas Democrats spoke at the rally, including San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, U.S. Rep Joaquin Castro, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, and others.
To San Antonio voters like Kayla Musquiz, seeing Emhoff has inspired her to get more people registered to vote.
“It’s important to go and vote so that your voice can be heard,” Musquiz said. “We live in a red state and we all know it’s gerrymandered in a way where the big cities all come out blue. So we really need to work on going into those rural areas and making sure that we can turn that blue as well.”
The rally was held at San Antonio College’s Candler Physical Education Center.
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