Uvalde shooting victims’ families disappointed after Beto O’Rourke’s loss

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UVALDE — Veronica and Jerry Mata, whose daughter Tess was one of many 19 college students killed within the deadliest faculty shooting in Texas historical past, arrived at a bustling native bar and grill for an Election Day watch celebration Tuesday night feeling nervously excited.

They had been there to help their buddy Javier Cazares, a fellow dad or mum of a Robb Elementary shooting sufferer and a write-in candidate for county commissioner. But their minds had been on the governor’s race.

They’d hoped Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, who helps elevating the minimal age to buy an AR-15-style rifle just like the one used to homicide their youngster, would ship an upset and beat Gov. Greg Abbott. In their view, Abbott has ignored their pleas to vary Texas gun legal guidelines to forestall one other mass shooting.

Several victims’ families joined them at a desk within the bar, consuming rooster wings, chips and salsa and ordering Michelob Ultras. About an hour after the polls closed, Angel Garza, the stepfather of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza — one of many victims — learn a news alert from his cellphone: “Breaking News: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has won a third term, defeating Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke.”

Veronica Mata didn’t imagine it. She mentioned it was too early for the race to be known as. But because the night time went on and different news retailers projected the identical outcomes, the families’ jovial temper was disappointment.

“Unfortunately, 21 people dead doesn’t change people’s minds,” mentioned Jazmin Cazares, 17, whose 9-year-old sister, Jacklyn, was killed at Robb Elementary. She had joined her dad and mom to look at the election outcomes — her father misplaced his write-in bid for commissioner — and was doing her math homework on a pill.

“Everybody has the right to vote for whoever they want, we just hoped that they would see where we were coming from and see what we wanted to change,” mentioned Veronica Mata, a kindergarten trainer.

Since an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 college students and two academics with an assault-style rifle he purchased shortly earlier than the carnage, a number of the victims’ families have develop into politically lively, pushing Abbott and different elected officers to lift the minimal age to buy such weapons from 18 to 21. They pleaded with Texas Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz to help altering gun legal guidelines. They have traveled to Austin and Washington, D.C., to satisfy with different lawmakers to ask for his or her help and have held demonstrations of their hometown and in entrance of the state Capitol.

For the Matas, the Cazareses and others, this primary main election because the shooting wasn’t like different elections. It was private. They threw their help behind O’Rourke, who has now misplaced three elections in 4 years, hoping that he could be the catalyst to vary gun legal guidelines within the state.

O’Rourke misplaced badly on Tuesday. And Uvalde County decisively voted for Abbott.

It’s unclear whether or not any of the shooting victims’ families supported Abbott’s reelection. But the outcomes shocked Berlinda Arreola, Amerie Jo’s grandmother.

She thought that points just like the state energy grid crashing for days after a February 2021 winter storm, conservatives’ help of outlawing abortion in Texas and the botched legislation enforcement response to the Robb Elementary shooting — a whole bunch of officers waited greater than an hour to confront and kill the gunman as college students known as 911 for assist — would tip the election in favor of O’Rourke.

“There’s nothing I can do that’s going to make a difference,” Arreola mentioned. “The only thing that is going to change people’s minds is when it happens to them.”

John Lira, the Democratic candidate difficult U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales for a congressional seat that sprawls from San Antonio to El Paso, joined the families on the watch celebration and mentioned that whereas Abbott’s victory was “crushing,” he was pleased with the families for changing into politically engaged after experiencing a tragedy.

“It just means that the fight goes on,” mentioned Lira, who additionally misplaced on Tuesday. “This community, these families, they fought their ass off for change, for a new vision, for somebody that will listen to them and be responsive to them and what happened to this community.”

The families ordered extra drinks because the night time wore on. Many mentioned their combat to drive change in Texas isn’t near being carried out.

Jerry Mata’s telephone rang. It was Faith, the couple’s oldest daughter, and she or he was crying as a result of she was upset concerning the election outcomes. Her dad and mom and the opposite dad and mom consoled her in a video name.

“Babe, we’re going to regroup and continue fighting,” Jerry Mata instructed his daughter. “Five years from now, the media may leave, everybody may leave, but we’re not going to leave. We’re going to continue the fight and get what we deserve for our kids.”

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