Texans grab debate spotlight

HOUSTON — Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro, Texans stuck in the low single digits in most Democratic presidential polls, made waves Thursday in the debate at Texas Southern University, despite having comparatively little speaking time.

They each came out of the debate as top newsmakers, with Castro attacking former Vice President Joe Biden over his health care plan — and questioning Biden's memory in the process— and O'Rourke repeating his provocative call to buy back assault weapons. But the two Texans, who joined eight other candidates on stage, likely won't see much of a debate bump, experts say.

Castro, a former San Antonio mayor and housing secretary in the second Obama administration, claimed that Biden changed his position about his health care plan, which Castro said would leave 10 million people uninsured. Biden denied that people would have to opt in under his plan that would expand Obamacare to include a public option.

“Are you forgetting what you said two minutes ago?” Castro said, pressing his point. “Are you forgetting already what you said just two minutes ago? I mean, I can’t believe that you said two minutes ago that they had to buy in, and now you’re saying they don’t have to buy in. You’re forgetting that.”

Related: Fact-checking Castro's attack on Biden for forgetting his health care plan

After the debate, Castro denied that it was a shot at the 76-year-old Biden’s age. His campaign responded to an onslaught of criticism with an email to supporters, and Castro tweeted, “It’s clear what was said.”

“I had a critical choice to make on the debate stage last night: I could either play it safe and give (Biden) a free pass like everyone else, or I could speak up, challenge the conversation and demand answers for you and your family,” the campaign email read. “I’m not in this race to play it safe.”

It’s clear what was said.

Biden: “If you want Medicare, if you lose the job from your insurance—from your employer, you automatically can buy into this.”

I don’t think anyone should have to buy in to health coverage.

pic.twitter.com/lN56qaTL3y

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro)September 13, 2019

Unlike a successful attack by U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California against Biden in the first debate, Castro’s offensive seemed to have the opposite effect, said Joshua Scacco, who studies political rhetoric at the University of South Florida.

“We watched a candidate make a nearly fatal miscalculation in his ageist attack on Joe Biden,” Scacco said. “Castro misread the moment, mischaracterized what the vice president said about health care and underestimated the make-up of a Democratic electorate that will be older in many states and render judgment on him.”

PolitiFact rated Castro's claim about Biden changing his health care position "mostly false."

Two candidates — South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — criticized Castro during the debate for his attack and other candidates joined them afterward.

In an interview Friday on CNN, O’Rourke, the former El Paso congressman, called it a personal attack that “I don’t think is what we need right now.”

Gun confiscation

Meanwhile, O’Rourke made headlines of his own, with the debate coming about six weeks after the El Paso mass shooting that left 22 people dead at a Walmart. O’Rourke, who took a break from the campaign trail to spend time in El Paso after the shooting, brought raw emotion to the stage.

In Texas, a string of mass shootings over the past two years hasn’t resulted in stricter gun laws. The latest legislative session, which came after an attack that killed 10 at Santa Fe High School, brought new laws designed to make schools safer. Republican leaders also expanded gun rights and killed efforts to enact a “red flag” law that would let family members and law enforcement seek a court order to temporarily confiscate weapons from people deemed to be a threat to themselves or others.

“You know that critics call this confiscation,” ABC’s David Muir, one of the moderators, asked of O'Rourke's plan to buy back assault-style weapons. “Are you proposing taking away their guns?”

“I am, if it was a weapon designed to kill people on a battlefield,” O’Rourke replied.

“In Odessa, I met the mother of a 15-year-old girl who was shot by an AR-15, and that mother watched her bleed to death over the course of an hour because so many other people were shot by that AR-15,” O’Rourke said. “In Odessa and Midland, there weren’t enough ambulances to get to them in time. Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47.”

Hell yeah, we're going to take your AR-15. If it's a weapon that was designed to kill people on the battlefield, we're going to buy it back.pic.twitter.com/cCEWkG6y0X

— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke)September 13, 2019

Scacco said the praise O'Rourke received from other candidates and his call to buy back guns helped him in the debate.

"His best moments channeled the still-raw emotion of mass shootings in Texas to a definitive statement on confiscation of (assault) weapons," Scacco said. "The appreciation other candidates bestowed on him seems to convey both a genuine acknowledgment of how he represents the victims and an understanding of his lack of competitiveness in the field."

Debate bump?

James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said O'Rourke seemed more relaxed than he was in the previous two debates, but his performance likely won't result in a significant boost in polls.

O'Rourke “has done better as he's gotten more experience at this and has responded to events, but the timing of this improvement is such that he doesn't have time to stay on the learning curve," Henson said.

O'Rourke and Castro lag far behind the front-runners in polls in early nominating states, even in Texas, where Castro is in the single digits and O'Rourke is in third place, according to two polls released this week.

"Both of them did what candidates in national polling and other states need to do at this point, which is to somehow draw attention to themselves to get the public to pay attention," Henson said. "It probably didn't move the needle much for them, but it also probably wasn't fatal given the overall tenor of the debate."