[28][271][272][273], O'Rourke married Amy Hoover Sanders, the daughter of Louann and Bill Sanders, at her parents' ranch in Lamy, New Mexico, near Santa Fe, on September 24, 2005. [163] For example, Republicans lost control of the Texas Third Court of Appeals and Fifth Court of Appeals in the 2018 elections.
O'Rourke and two friends from El Paso, Mike Stevens and Arlo Klahr, learned to play musical instruments; O'Rourke took up the bass. He also criticized the NATO-led military intervention in Libya a "factor in the destabilization of the Middle East and the rise of ISIS. [186], GovTrack placed O'Rourke near the ideological center of the Democratic Party; American for Democratic action gave him a liberal rating of 90 percent, while the American conservative union gave him an 8% conservative rating. [67], As an adult, O'Rourke volunteered for the campaigns of several politicians, including José Rodríguez for his 2002 re-election as El Paso County Attorney and Eliot Shapleigh his 2002 and 2006 reelections as Texas State Senator. elections. He asked, "Can a Democrat really win in this deeply red state—against Cruz, who will be running one of the best-financed campaigns in the country? [253], O'Rourke voted against the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion[254] and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2017,[255] which would have permanently banned the use of federal funds for abortions and reformed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to prohibit qualified health plans from including coverage for abortions. Video footage by "elephantandseal," posted here, shows members wearing brown paper bags over their heads instead. [143][144], Cruz declined to participate in the third, town hall-style debate for CNN held on October 18, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. [123] His first ad was filmed on an iPhone. [43][56], O'Rourke returned to El Paso in 1998. I was an awkward and shy kid, so it was the last thing I wanted to do, but now I can look back and bless my experience in it. The city is located just miles from the Rio Grande, the river that creates the border of the United States and Mexico in the state of Texas. ", "Beto O'Rourke gets debate moment: "Hell yes, we're going to take your" assault weapons", "Ted Cruz calls out challenger Beto O'Rourke in a sign of a tough fight to come in Texas", "Far apart on immigration, Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke both use the issue to woo voters", "Protecting 'Dreamers' top priority, O'Rourke says at State of Congress luncheon", "O'Rourke addresses needs, concerns related to DACA", "Thoughts on the joint session of Congress", "Beto O'Rourke, Veronica Escobar lead Father's Day march on tent city housing separated immigrant children", "Beto O'Rourke leads Tornillo protest against separation of immigrant families", "Separating Children From Parents at Border Is 'Un-American' and 'on All of Us,' Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke Says", "O'Rourke compares Trump immigration comments to Nazi Germany", "Ted Cruz: Beto O'Rourke wants open border and to take guns", "Beto O'Rourke: "Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, "Warren, Buttigieg reject O'Rourke threat to tax anti-LGBTQ churches", "Beto O'Rourke said religious institutions should lose tax-exempt status if they oppose gay marriage. Not Likely. After being introduced to Bad Brains as a teen,[55] O'Rourke became a fan of punk music. [74], During his childhood, O'Rourke accompanied his father Pat at campaign stops and other political events. He soon discovered Dischord Records, a Washington, D.C.-based independent label with a catalog of punk music, and began reading punk zines like Maximumrocknroll and Flipside. [120] When asked if he would share the funds with Democrats in other races, he declined, saying that he wanted to honor "the commitment that those who've contributed to this campaign have made to me. [122] According to the 2018 third-quarter report from the FEC, his campaign spent US$7.3 million on digital advertising alone (in contrast with Cruz's $251,000).
The white cotton bodysuit clung to his lanky frame.
Beto O’Rourke in a dress on the left. [42] O'Rourke attended Columbia University, where in his junior year he co-captained Columbia's heavyweight rowing crew.
"[56] O'Rourke is one of the youngest representatives ever to have served on the City Council. "[246] In April 2019, O'Rourke publicly compared rhetoric used by Trump to describe immigrants to language from Nazi Germany. "[104], O'Rourke was one of six members of Congress who took a six-day trip to Israel that included meetings with Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators, political leaders and residents. [178][179][180][181][182] During his time in Congress, O'Rourke was a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a pro-business member organization. Some band members lost their sheep masks, so they wore brown paper bags over their heads instead. This footage of Beto O'Rourke singing The Ramones in a sheep mask and onesie will make your day, Beto O'Rourke is used to being in the headlines. [250] At CNN's Equality Town Hall, O'Rourke asserted that "'there can be no reward, no benefit, no tax break for anyone or any institution, any organization in America that denies the full human rights and the full civil rights of every single one of us'". [91][92] O'Rourke told reporters the reason he spoke up about the War on Drugs was the thousands of people who had been killed in the nearby city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. O'Rourke is most notable for his 2018 campaign for United States Senate, in which he narrowly lost to Republican incumbent Ted Cruz.
Unfortunately this President takes another step into a dark world of fear, isolation and separation. Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware "lamented on CNN that O'Rourke's stance could haunt Democrats, because 'that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations that try to scare people by saying, "Democrats are coming for your guns"'". O'Rourke's press secretary later clarified that he "'was referring to religious institutions who take discriminatory action'".
[35] The group "is notorious for releasing tools that allowed ordinary people to hack computers running Microsoft's Windows". [13][14] He has two younger sisters, the younger of whom was born intellectually impaired. He promotes industry and business regulations meant to promote competition, help the economy to grow, and protect consumers. Beto O'Rourke has the policy chops to run for president. [150] Singer and activist Willie Nelson endorsed O'Rourke and held a rally for him on September 29 in Austin, Texas; Nelson said, "Beto embodies what is special about Texas, an energy and an integrity that is completely genuine". "[205], O'Rourke has introduced legislation to establish a national monument at Castner Range, near El Paso, and successfully included a provision in the National Defense Authorization Act to protect the area, which includes a historic military training facility.
"[214] In March 2019, O'Rourke called for ending the U.S.–led Iraq War and War in Afghanistan.
[188], Allegheny College bestowed the 2018 Prize for Civility in Public Life to O'Rourke together with Will Hurd, a Texas Republican. That all of his energy and dedication and optimism is more than a show. 3135). ", "Beto Admits Non-Compliant AR-15 Owners Would Receive a 'Visit from a Law-Enforcement Officer' under His Plan", "Beto "Gave Away the Game": Will O'Rourke's Hell-Yes Moment Cost Him Back in Texas? [213] In August 2017, O'Rourke criticized Trump's hard-line stance towards North Korea, saying that "We must not allow this president to sleepwalk this country, or tweet this country, into war with North Korea. [107] As a sitting member of Congress, O'Rourke was a superdelegate to the Democratic National Convention.
You can go back to the coup [in Guatemala] that overthrew Jacobo Arbenz in 1954, fully backed by the Eisenhower administration and the Dulles brothers, who had an interest in the United Fruit company, whose fight with the government really precipitated the crisis that led to the coup. [31][40] In 1988, after two years at El Paso High School,[41] he enrolled in Woodberry Forest School, an all-male boarding school in Madison County, Virginia. Although O'Rourke stopped performing with Fragile Gang after two of its members, Klahr and Cormack, moved to Los Angeles, the band, still in existence, plays on. In an attempt to better meet veterans' needs, O'Rourke and others worked to establish a new program at the El Paso VA designed to care for military related health issues within the hospital while using community clinics or medical facilities in the area for more standard medical needs.
[270], On July 3, 2001, O'Rourke's father, a longtime cycling enthusiast, died while riding his bicycle along the shoulder of Pete Domenici Highway, just outside the city limits of El Paso and across the New Mexico state line, when he was struck from behind by a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, throwing him 70 feet (21 m) and causing severe head injuries; he was pronounced dead at the scene.
[30][31], In eighth grade, O'Rourke was introduced to punk rock through the Clash's London Calling (1979), an album he later called "a revelation". [53] He joined his first band, called Swipe, after he left El Paso to attend Columbia University in New York. [16] O'Rourke cites his work on his magazine rather than boyhood exposure to politics, as the reason behind his initial political ideas and ambitions. "[197] He proposed that politicians work to eliminate private, for-profit prisons, end the "war on drugs", stop using mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenses, end cash bail that disproportionately affects those unable to pay bail with longer jail sentences,[198] and provide reentry programs to reduce recidivism for non-violent criminals.
"[95], In 2012, O'Rourke filed for the Democratic primary against the eight-term Silvestre Reyes to represent Texas's 16th congressional district. The Get Vets a Doc Now Act (H.R. [56][89][90], In January 2009, O'Rourke sponsored a resolution calling for "comprehensive examination" of the War on Drugs and "the repeal of ineffective marijuana laws". After his college graduation, he returned to El Paso and began a business career. "[220], In an interview with ABC, O'Rourke suggested that the United States address the migrant caravan by investing in stability in countries where the migrants originate, countries in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke (/ ˈ b ɛ t oʊ oʊ ˈ r ɔːr k /; born September 26, 1972) is an American politician who represented Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019. Why does Bellaire hate sidewalks so much? [217] Addressing the Trump–Putin joint press conference of July 16, he said standing "on stage in another country with the leader of another country who wants to and has sought to undermine this country, and to side with him over the United States—if I were asked to vote on this I would vote to impeach the president. Is that Beto O’Rourke in the onesie, wearing the face of a sheep? “I think people followed along with the mystery of it, but they knew who we were.”. [20] In his infancy, his family gave him the nickname "Beto", a common Spanish-Portuguese nickname for first names ending in "-berto", initially to distinguish him from his namesake grandfather. "I wasn't that good at it," he said in a 2017 Houston Chronicle article. The eyes of the nation upon him. [33] O'Rourke felt alienated from the City of El Paso as an adolescent in the 1980s. He suspended his campaign on November 1, 2019, before the primaries began.