Prairie View, TX - September 19, 2018, Prairie View A&M University had the opportunity to host a Town Hall with Democratic U.S. Senator candidate Beto O'rourke as apart of HBCU Week.

During a press conference before the town hall, O'Rourke expressed why it was important he came to Prairie View A&M University. "I remember this year we had a town hall at Hempstead and a Prairie View student said, 'Will you come to campus?'" O'Rourke reassured his promise to this student, "I'm following through on that promise I made."

The event took place in the Willie A. Tempton Memorial Student Center Auditorium, at 6-7:30 PM. The Links, Incorporated, and Prairie View A&M University's Student Government Association partnered to sponsor the town hall. The Links, Incorporated is an international, not-for-profit corporation, established in 1946.

Before the town hall commenced, there was a rendition of Lift Every Voice from PVAMU Junior History major Jessmine Cornelius. She was followed by a welcome from Carme Williams, VP of Development, Link, Ft. Bend Chapter. Co-host, SGA President, Maduforo Eze, then introduced the moderator for the night, Roxann Chargois, along with Beto O'Rourke. The crowd roared with the sounds of clapping and cheering as they entered center stage and took their seats. Beto walked with charisma head held high donning a Prairie View A&M University baseball cap.

Chargois began highlighting the accolades that graced Beto's extensive resume, and the importance of this town hall. Chargois started moderating with questions stemming from other Texas HBCUs such as Paul Quinn College, Wiley College, Huston-Tillotson University, Texas College, St. Phillips College, Texas Southern University, Jarvis Christian College, and Southwestern Christian College.

One question phrased in many ways, was 'What is your plan for pushing higher education? And, providing more state funding for Texas HBCUs?'

Beto responded, "There was an omnibus bill that was considered by the Congress this year. Ted Cruz voted against it, I voted for it. It included a 14% increase for HBCU funding; it forgave 300 million dollars in HBCU disaster relief loans as we recovered from natural disasters that have been visited on different HBCUs across this state and other states in the union. That's progress that we can build upon, but we know we are nowhere close to where we need to be. Endowments are not at the level they need to be here yet. We don't have full funding to ensure that cost is not an object to every young potential student, who wants to better themselves by coming to Prairie View and studying those things that are going to allow them to not only do better for themselves in their life but to do better for all of us in whatever they hope to achieve by living to their full potential."

O'Rourke gave his ideas on making college more cost-efficient for the majority population, "Making college more affordable, allowing those who already taken out loans in a country that has 1.5 trillion dollars in outstanding student loan debt to refinance those loans at lower rates ... including ensuring that everyone can at least go to community college and begin at least the first two years of what might be four years of higher education. That makes a lot of sense. All these are investments, but they are investments that pay handsome dividends far and above the initial cost that we put in. Those are some things I would like to support."

Chargois' described the experience to moderate and sit alongside O'Rourke, "This was quite an exhilarating experience. I had seen Beto on TV in news clips, and I was pleased to learn that he was exactly what I've seen on TV. He was very honest, authentic, transparent, knowledgeable I appreciated that he had a well thought out response, but when he didn't have an answer, he didn't hesitate to tell the audience that he didn't have an answer. I appreciated that" O'Rourke's campaign is one of the people as they have made it their goal to travel to every county in the state. O'Rourke also took some time to address his arrest record at the town hall, owning up to his past mistake (20 years ago) and reminding constituents that it cannot define one's future. The U.S. Senate candidate also made it clear that he does not care what the color of the state is and wants to be a representative voice for all of its citizens.

Early Voting for November 6, 2018, General Election begins Monday, October 22, 2018.

*This article was previously published online for The Panther Newspaper.