LAREDO — Lightly funded, long-shot Democrats in hot pursuit of statewide office could adopt this motto: Have Beto O'Rourke rally, will travel.

O'Rourke has staked his U.S. Senate bid on retail politics — 259 town halls, while visiting all 254 Texas counties. And counting.

As the El Paso congressman generates buzz, the crowds grow.

Democrats seeking state constitutional offices have noticed.

"With a guy like Beto at the top, we can draft on him," said Miguel Suazo, the party's land commissioner hopeful, outside a music venue in Laredo Friday night.

Suazo, an energy and water lawyer from San Antonio, said he's glommed on to more than 10 O'Rourke town halls.

But there could be an upside for O'Rourke, he said.

"He did not" do well in South Texas in the primary, Suazo noted. "Maybe I can create some reverse coattails for Beto down here."

O'Rourke, asked late Saturday if he finds his freeloading ticket-mates a little irritating, said he doesn't.

"I'm glad that they were here," he said, referring to his event at the Tex-Mex Café in Brownsville. "And I'm glad that everybody got to hear them."

At all three of his weekend town halls in the Rio Grande Valley, O'Rourke's campaign allowed statewide candidates to speak — as sort of a warmup act, before comedian Cristela Alonzo introduced him with a lengthy monologue.

Gubernatorial hopeful Lupe Valdez, who appeared at all three, said she could recall only one other time she went to an O'Rourke campaign event — in Dallas.

"We're all helping each other," she said outside a theater in downtown McAllen. "You've got Joi [Chevalier, candidate for comptroller], who is the African American. You've got me with the surname. Beto's doing a lot of other stuff. So you get us — you get all of us, together. We're doing well."

Kim Olson, the party's nominee for agriculture commissioner, said she's been to 15 or more O'Rourke town halls.

"I have chased Beto all over this state for a year and a half — and I'm about to catch him," she told the Laredo crowd.

Asked afterward if she's reluctant to chase another politician's fans, she said, "Why not? Dovetail on him. He needs us just as much as we need him."