Editor’s note: In a tweet on Aug. 28, O’Rourke confirmed that he had been diagnosed with a bacterial infection after visiting Methodist Hospital in San Antonio. O’Rourke also said he will be taking some time off from his campaign to recover at his home in El Paso.
A Beto O’Rourke book signing and meet-and-greet on Aug. 26 at Nowhere Bookshop was abruptly canceled moments after it was due to start when the gubernatorial candidate began feeling unwell. The event was promoting “We’ve Got to Try,” O’Rourke’s new book about the history of voting suppression and restriction in Texas.
The owner of Nowhere Bookshop and blogger, Jenny Lawson, said O’Rourke was backstage signing books when he began feeling sick and decided to pull the plug on the event. Lawson also said that they will do their best to reschedule the event, though a date has not yet been decided.
O’Rourke was set to hold a rally later that day at the Shrine Auditorium on the city’s north side that was also postponed to a later date.
Before the scheduled start of the event, one protester with a sign that read, “Beto [and] Biden: both bad for Texas,” was escorted across the street by an Alamo Heights officer. Two campaign volunteers, Belinda Barbosa and Brenda Jurgens, said they were not aware of any threats and were in fact surprised there weren’t more protesters.
Carol Shavers, attendee and caller with the Beto for Texas campaign, said she was looking forward to telling O’Rourke how the school massacre in Uvalde earlier this year bothered her, and how she wanted him to hold someone responsible should he be elected in November.
“We’re talking about the murder of those children, and someone needs to be held responsible for that,” Shavers said. “What we’re looking at today in this nation is sabotage of this nation … our democracy is at stake and we need young people like Mr. O’Rourke to keep going.”
According to campaign press secretary Tori Larned, O’Rourke is not infected with COVID-19. She did not specify if he has any other confirmed illness.
