AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The Latest on Rep. Beto O'Rourke's appearance on an MSNBC town hall (all times local):
7:20 p.m.
Democratic Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke is suggesting that President Donald Trump floated the idea of using an executive order to end birthright U.S. citizenship so close to the midterm elections because "he's trying to play upon the worst impulses of this country."
O'Rourke appeared Tuesday night on an MSNBC town hall and said Trump has stoked "fear and paranoia" about a caravan of Central American immigrants slowly trekking through Mexico toward the U.S. border.
He said the U.S. can rise above the White House's "current occupant."
A congressman from El Paso giving up his seat, O'Rourke is trying to beat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. Cruz said Tuesday that he supports ending birthright citizenship but he's unsure if the president has the legal authority to do that with an executive order.
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3 p.m.
Texas Senate hopeful Beto O'Rourke is appearing on an MSNBC town hall, the second time in less than two weeks that a candidate seen as a rising Democratic star gets to make a nationally televised case for ousting Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.
Tuesday's event from Houston comes as O'Rourke shattered Senate campaign fundraising records, including raising $38-plus million for the three-month period between July and September, despite shunning donations from outside political groups.
A onetime punk rocker giving up his El Paso-based House seat to challenge Cruz, O'Rourke is trying to become Texas' first Democrat to win statewide office since 1994.
But polls that once showed him closing in now have Cruz consistently ahead.
After two debates with Cruz, O'Rourke appeared solo on a CNN town hall earlier this month.
