Willie Nelson rallies for Beto O'Rourke in South Austin

Droves of Texas Democrats and country music fans made their way to South Austin on Sunday to see country legend Willie Nelson and gubernatorial hopeful Beto O'Rourke.

O'Rourke's "Vote 'Em Out" rally, headlined by Nelson, kicked off with music, margaritas and homemade signs highlighting key issues of the election, from abortion and gun rights to teacher pay and the border.

Fresh off Friday night's debate with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, O'Rourke talked with supporters at the Moontower Saloon about how Texas needs to change course, pointing to a number of reforms he hopes to implement.

O'Rourke called for legalizing marijuana, a nod to Nelson, he said, along with market-based pay adjustments for teachers and securing abortion access in Texas.

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"Texas, we're going to do common-sense, bipartisan things for all of us," O'Rourke told a crowd of several hundred people.

Across the many food trucks, beer tents and volleyball pits at the venue, teams of volunteers were registering people to vote and providing information on the process.

"We've got a bunch of young people here who had never registered before, and they didn't know they needed to," said Valarie DeBill, a volunteer with the O'Rourke campaign's get-out-the-vote effort. "And so they thought they were just going to be able to show up and vote."

DeBill said by the halfway mark of Sunday's event about 50 people had registered. Oct. 11 is the final day to register to vote for the election. Early voting will start Oct. 24. Election Day is Nov. 8.

Nelson played a number of hits from throughout his Hall of Fame career, as well as a song he wrote for a previous O'Rourke rally.

"Vote 'Em Out" is the title of the song Nelson wrote in 2018 and performed as part of a multiact concert at Austin's Auditorium Shores as O'Rourke challenged incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

“If you don’t like who’s in there, vote 'em out," the song's refrain goes. "That’s what Election Day is all about. And the biggest gun we’ve got is called the ballot box. So if you don’t like who’s in there, vote 'em out.”

As Election Day nears, the minds of Texas voters are nearly made up, according to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University. The poll found 53% of likely voters favoring Abbott and 46% favoring O'Rourke, with 96% of the 1,327 respondents with a preferred candidate saying their decision was made.