WACO, Texas — The race for Texas governor is heating up with less than one week left before early voting begins.
Candidate's campaigns are more important now than ever. It's even brought one of them to Central Texas.
Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke was in Waco Tuesday tonight trying to capture people's votes before they hit the polls.
O'Rourke had quite the greeting at his rally from a majority red county.
People of all ages, even those who can't vote, were out to support him in his race to the Texas Capitol.
"Clearly we want Beto to be governor so yeah it would be great and we're just trying to do everything we can to get him down to Austin," explained 14-year-old Hudson Harp.
O'Rourke's stop in Waco was part of his 20-city tour in just 12 days; a push for Texans to choose to fight for a brighter Texas.
"I want to make sure that the best jobs in America are created right here in Texas," the presumed democratic nominee said. "That we have a world class system of public education because we have gotten behind in our school educators and then everyone who needs to can see a doctor with expanded Medicaid.
It's also a push for Texans to fight to keep the lights on.
O'Rourke is running on fixing the states power grid, connecting it to the rest of the country and holding those accountable for the problems of the 2021 winter storm.
"What I'm hearing back from the people of Waco is that they don't like paying 20 to 50 bucks more per month on utility bills to clean up a mess that the governor made in the first place," O'Rourke added.
The incumbent, current Governor Greg Abbott signed off on the open carry law in Texas, while the presumed democratic nominee says not a chance and that's something his supports can get behind.
"I think it's more evident in Texas that we have a gun problem and something needs to be done about it," said Adam Wronski, a Baylor University graduate student.
Until then it's all about the campaign for O'Rourke.
"What matters at the end of the night on November 8 of this year is how many total votes we get," the Democrat candidate said.
But, in a majority red county and low voter turnout like cities of Bellmead, residents like Linda Robinson call on people to use their right to get to the polls.
"That's just not acceptable -- there's too much critical, there's too much that's critical right now, including our democracy," she added.
Which O'Rourke says is dying and being threatened.
O'Rourke is a familiar face for Texans on the campaign trail, he was a one-time challenger to Senator Ted Cruz in 2018 losing by less than 215,000 votes.
The Democratic candidate will first need to win the primaries in March.
He's going up against former public radio journalist Joy Diaz, Beaumont Pastor Michael Cooper, and conservative Democrat Rich Wakeland.
Early voting starts February 14 and Election Day is on March 1.