Beto O’Rourke will bring his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to Western Pennsylvania this week, with stops scheduled for Pittsburgh and Erie.
O’Rourke, a former U.S. congressman from Texas, will hold a town hall event Wednesday, Sept. 25 at 11:30 a.m. at Schenley Plaza in Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood before heading up to Erie on Thursday, according to a statement from his campaign.
The trip is part of town hall events scheduled for Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania this week, during which O’Rourke will “urge decisive action on gun violence,” according to the statement.
O’Rourke has been outspoken on gun control. He suspended his campaign in August following the mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso — his hometown, and a city he represented in Congress for six years — that left 22 people dead and 24 injured.
His platform includes requiring universal background checks; banning assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines; and starting a national buyback program for banned weapons.
This will be O’Rourke’s first stop in the Pittsburgh area. He visited State College in March, about a week after he launched his campaign.
About 1% of Pennsylvania voters indicated that they would vote for O’Rourke in the Democratic primary, according to an August survey conducted by Franklin & Marshall College.
An average of national survey data compiled by Real Clear Politics shows O’Rourke polling at 3.2% among the 19 candidates still in the race.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, of Minnesota, campaigned in the Pittsburgh area Sept. 18, visiting a training facility for trade workers in Robinson and holding a meet-and-greet near the University of Pittsburgh campus in Oakland.
Former Vice President Joe Biden — the favorite among Pennsylvania voters, according to the Franklin & Marshall poll — kicked off his campaign in Pittsburgh in April.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, most recently visited Pittsburgh in August to pick up an endorsement from the Pittsburgh-based United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America union.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, of New York, also visited Pittsburgh before dropping out of the race in August.
