Over the weekend, aspiring Senator Beto O’Rourke and Texas music icon Willie Nelson pulled together some friends for an Austin campaign rally — about 55,000 of them to be exact.
By some counts, that’s the biggest turnout since the 2016 presidential election. And O’Rourke will need every bit of that support as he takes on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in one of this year’s most-watched races.
But the excitement didn’t end with the attendance at O’Rourke’s Saturday rally. Willie also debuted a new tune that seemed to sum up the crowd’s sentiments about the incumbent.
“Here’s a new song I wanna spring on all y’all tonight,” Nelson said, strumming his road-worn acoustic guitar, Trigger. “Take it home with you, spread it all around.”
“If you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out.
That’s what election day is all about.
And the biggest gun we got is called the ballot box.
If you don’t like who’s in there, vote ’em out.”
The lyrics mention neither Cruz or O’Rourke by name. But that could be because Willie doesn’t want to limit the tune to a single campaign. After all, the singer was a public supporter of both Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders — and he’s certainly not ready to retire from the road.
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This article appears in Fall Guide 2018.
