Notes from Beto’s Campaign Rally

First Read has some good observations from Beto O’Rourke’s campaign kickoff in El Paso over the weekend:

• He doesn’t use a Teleprompter.
• His campaign didn’t release speech excerpts.
• His campaign excels at building picturesque rally settings (also see his last stop in Austin).
• His speech covered the bases on policy (health care, education, climate change), clearly reacting to the earlier criticism that he had lacked policy specifics.
• His speech had a heavy emphasis on immigration and the border battle (“Let’s make sure that we never take another child from another mother after her most desperate and vulnerable moment”).
• And he made unity his other big theme (“Let’s agree, going forward, before we are anything else, we are Americans first”).