Beto O'Rourke: “It is great to be here tonight. I just traveled with my good friend, close colleague, and fellow Texan--and your fellow…”

“It is great to be here tonight. I just traveled with my good friend, close colleague, and fellow Texan--and your fellow Texan--Will Hurd, who started with me in San Antonio, Texas, yesterday at 7 a.m., San Antonio time, where we, because of the inclement weather on the East Coast and because of his canceled flight and the possibility that mine might also be canceled, decided to rent a car in San Antonio and drive it here to Washington, D.C., in time for votes this evening that started at 6:30 eastern standard time. That road trip in a Chevy Impala, rented in San Antonio, took us from San Antonio to Austin, to San Marcos, to Dallas, to Waco, to Texarkana, and then into Little Rock in Arkansas, over into Tennessee--cities including Memphis, Nashville, and Johnson City--and then through Virginia, 36 hours total, 31 of them either driving or at a pit stop fueling up on gas or grabbing a sandwich. Mr. Speaker, there were really two reasons to do this. One was to make sure that we could get to work and not allow the weather delays or flight cancellations to stop us from doing the jobs that we were elected to do on behalf of the people that we represent, but the other reason was for a Democrat and a Republican to get together, get to know each other, understand the issues before this Congress from each other's perspective, and see if we couldn't find some common ground.…”