O'Rourke seeking youthful voters angry over Kavanaugh confirmation

CYPRESS, Texas (FOX 26) - Roughly 48 hours after the acrimony in the nation's Capitol concluded with Judge Brett Kavanaugh's controversial Supreme Court confirmation, Democrat Beto O'Rourke was in Cypress, Texas, looking to transform angst over the newly sworn justice into ballots cast his way November 6.

He spoke with FOX 26 moments before taking the Berry Center stage.

"We need a Supreme Court Justice who believes in voting rights. In a state where you can be fired based upon your sexual orientation, we need a Supreme Court Justice who believes in civil rights and in the epicenter of the maternal mortality crisis, a justice who believes in a woman's right to make her own about her own body. We did not get that in Judge Kavanaugh, now Justice Kavanaugh," said O'Rourke.

Viewing the youngest voters in Texas as the "difference makers", O'Rourke has reached out to them early and often. Against the looming backdrop of President Donald Trump's pledge to stump here for incumbent Republican Ted Cruz, O'Rourke explained his decision to forgo help from former President Barack Obama.

"There is no one who can come to this state, even someone who I admire as much as President Obama, whose grace and the dignity with which he treated even his political opponents is something we deeply miss right now, I don't think even he can change the course of what we are going to decide for ourselves. This is up to the people of Texas," said O'Rourke.

A new Emerson poll has Cruz leading O'Rourke in the Texas race for U.S. Senate 47% to 42%, with 28 days until the election.