Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s latest ad for his gubernatorial campaign in Texas features the families of the victims of the Uvalde school shooting saying “no child is safe in their school while Greg Abbott is governor.”
The ad, “Be Their Voice,” begins with happy videos of a young victim of the shooting at Robb Elementary School that left 19 students and two teachers dead.
The video then cuts to a group of family members holding photos of their loved ones who died in the shooting.
“On May 24, our children’s voices were silenced,” one family member says. Another adds, “We never wanted to be on camera.”
The family members continue: “We’re not political people, but we have to fight for change,” “Because no child is safe in their school while Greg Abbott is governor,” “He won’t act so we need to vote him out.”
The ad concludes: “On May 24, our children’s voices were silenced. On November 8th, you can be their voice.”
The ad is not the first time O’Rourke has used the tragedy for political gain.
He was widely criticized for crashing Abbott’s press conference on the shooting in May.
O’Rourke interrupted the press conference shouting, “This is on you!”
“The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing,” O’Rourke said as he approached the stage where Abbott and other state officials were seated.
Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin, who was also onstage, called O’Rourke a “sick son of a b****,” according to the Texas Tribune’s Patrick Svitek.
In response to the Democrat telling Abbott the shooting is “on you,” McLaughlin said, “It’s on a**holes like you. Why don’t you get out of here?”
Police escorted O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman, out of the conference after the confrontation with the officials on stage.
“There are family members who are crying as we speak,” Abbott said after O’Rourke had been escorted out. “Think about the people who are hurt and help those who are hurt.”
After being escorted out of the press conference, O’Rourke told reporters outside: “This 18-year-old, who just turned 18, bought an AR-15 and took it into an elementary school and shot kids in the face and killed them. Why are we letting this happen in this country? Why is this happening in this state? Year after year, city after city.”
O’Rourke said at the time that we owe the victims’ parents action.
“We owe those parents our prayers and I’m praying for them, and I’ve called them and I’ve talked to them today,” he said. “We owe them our help and our assistance … But we [also] owe those parents action.”
The new ad comes as the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District fired a newly hired school officer on Thursday after reports surfaced identifying her as one of seven officers under investigation for her response to the Uvalde shooting.
Crimson Elizondo, one of the state troopers who arrived to the school within two minutes of the gunman’s attack, was heard on body camera footage saying: “If my son had been in there, I would not have been outside. I promise you that.”
Elizondo was hired as a police officer for the school district over the summer after leaving DPS.
“We are deeply distressed by the information that was disclosed yesterday evening concerning one of our recently hired employees, Crimson Elizondo,” the school district said in a statement to CNN. “We sincerely apologize to the victim’s families and the greater Uvalde community for the pain that this revelation has caused. Ms. Elizondo’s statement in the audio is not consistent with the District’s expectations.”
Seven Department of Public Safety officers of the 91 to respond to the shooting are under investigation for their actions that day.
Officials around the nation have questioned why it took 77 minutes for police to breach a pair of adjoining rooms where a gunman was mercilessly slaughtering fourth-grade students and their teachers.
The Uvalde school board voted unanimously in August to fire district police chief Pete Arredondo over the botched police response.