‘Invest in people and not corporations’: Watch Beto O’Rourke’s moving answer to unemployment in Texas town hall

At CNN's Texas town hall in McAllen, Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) demanded that the federal government put people first in economic policy.

Rep. O'Rourke is challenging Sen. Ted Cruz (R-CA), who refused to participate in the nationally televised event.

A woman in the audience noted that it is "pretty overwhelming having to carry my whole household when [her husband] can't even find a job at Home Depot or Lowes or anywhere."

"So my question to you is, how is a man supposed to do anything in a time when no one will hire him?" she asked.

O'Rourke replied that, "I want to make sure that we make investments in people, in communities, not corporations and special interests and political action committees."

"This $2 trillion tax cut that flowed to corporations -- who were already sitting on record piles of cash -- to the very wealthiest in this country at a time of historic income inequality, at a moment that we have $21 trillion in debt is unconscionable," he continued.

"But it doesn't have to be our destiny, with the right leadership in the United States Senate, we can turn that focus back to people, people like your husband, to families and to communities, and that's what I want to do for you and your husband in the Senate," he pledged.

Watch: