O'Rourke officially joins US presidential race, citing 'moment of truth'

Beto O'Rourke, the youthful Democrat who seized national attention last fall with an unexpectedly strong Senate campaign in conservative Texas, formally launched his presidential candidacy Saturday in his hometown of El Paso, vowing to bring a unifying dynamic, progressive values and generational change to American politics.

"This is our moment of truth, and we cannot be found wanting," he told an enthusiastic crowd of at least 1,000.

Speaking from a spot only blocks from the border with Mexico, he underscored some of his most vigorous differences with the man he hopes to succeed in the White House -- Donald Trump -- without ever naming the US president.

While Trump seeks to build a border wall and threatened just days ago to close the frontier if Mexico fails to stem the influx of undocumented immigrants, O'Rourke described America as "a country of immigrants and asylum seekers and refugees (who) are the very premise of our strength, of our success and, yes, our security." In an implicit rebuke to Trump, O'Rourke said that his hometown was safer because of its immigrants, not more dangerous.

If elected he said he would pursue comprehensive immigration reform, reunite immigrant families separated at the border and "bring millions more (undocumented immigrants) out of the shadows."
Speaking energetically as he roamed about a stage with the sleeves of his Oxford shirt rolled, the 46-year-old listed his priorities: remaking an economy "that works too well for too few and not at all for too many"; moving toward "high-quality universal healthcare"; and seizing the nation's "last best hope of averting a (climate) catastrophe."