Beto O’ Rourke recently announced that he is running for President of the USA in the 2020 elections!
So now is the perfect time to get to know him a little bit better! Let’s dive into his life and career.
- His full name is Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke
- He was born on September 26, 1972
- He is an American businessman and politician
- He represented Texas’s 16th congressional district for three terms in the United States House of Representatives
- A native of El Paso, Texas, Beto O’ Rourke served on the El Paso City Council from 2005 to 2011
- Beto O’ Rourke was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012
- After defeating incumbent Silvestre Reyes in a Democratic primary
- Beto O’ Rourke declined to seek re- election to the House in 2018
- And instead ran for U.S. Senate
- As the 2018 Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, O’ Rourke was narrowly defeated by Republican incumbent Senator Ted Cruz
- On March 13, 2019, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2020
- Robert Francis Beto O’ Rourke was born on September 26, 1972, at Hotel Dieu Hospital in El Paso, Texas
- His parents are Pat Francis O’Rourke and his second wife Melissa Martha O’Rourke
- He has Irish and Welsh ancestry
- His family gave him the nickname in infancy “Beto”
- A common Spanish nickname for first names ending in “-berto”
- It was given to him initially to distinguish him from his namesake grandfather
- His mother owned a furniture store
- She is the stepdaughter of Fred Korth, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy
- His father, Pat O’Rourke, served in El Paso as County Commissioner and County Judge
- Pat O’Rourke was an associate of Texas Governor Mark White
- And he served as the state chairman of Jesse Jackson’s 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns
- Before switching parties in the early 1990s
- And running several unsuccessful bids for office as a Republican
- He was raised in the Kern Place neighborhood
- Beto O’ Rourke began his education at Escuela Montessori Del Valle preschool
- He continued to Rivera Elementary School and Mesita Elementary School
- In 1988, after two years at El Paso High School, he enrolled in Woodberry Forest School
- Which was an all-male boarding school in Madison County, Virginia
- Between graduating from high school and starting college in 1991, he was a summer congressional intern in the Capitol Hill office of U.S. Congressman Ron Coleman
- Beto O’ Rourke attended Columbia University
- There in his junior year he co-captained Columbia’s heavyweight rowing crew
- He graduated in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature
- He is fluent in Spanish
- On May 19, 1995, Beto O’Rourke and his friends sneaked under the fence at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) physical plant
- They were arrested by the UTEP police for burglary
- He stayed in jail overnight and posted bail the following day
- He was initially charged with burglary
- But UTEP decided not to press charges
- Prosecutors dropped the charges against Beto O’ Rourke and his friends in February 1996
- Beto O’ Rourke was arrested for driving while intoxicated after a car crash on September 27, 1998, at 3:00 AM on Interstate 10 in Anthony, Texas
- The charges were dismissed in October 1999 after he completed a court-recommended DWI program
- Beto O’ Rourke became a fan of punk music
- Beto O’ Rourke, along with two friends from El Paso, Mike Stevens and Arlo Klahr, learned to play musical instruments
- With O’ Rourke taking up the bass
- In 1991, while at Columbia University, the trio recruited drummer Cedric Bixler-Zavala
- Together they formed the band Foss
- During the summer, they toured the United States and Canada
- Garnering the support of Feist
- The group released a self-titled demo
- And a 7″ record, “The El Paso Pussycats”, on Western Breed Records in 1993
- Beto O’ Rourke also played drums in the band Swedes
- They released an album called Summer in 1995
- Fellow bandmates included Jake Barowsky, Arlo Klahr, Julie Napolin, and Mike Stevens
- After graduation, Beto O’ Rourke worked as a live-in caretaker and art mover before working for an Internet service provider
- He later took a position at H. W. Wilson Company as a proofreader
- He wrote short stories and songs in his free time
- Beto O’ Rourke returned to El Paso in 1998
- The following year, he co-founded Stanton Street Technology Group
- An Internet services and software company
- As of March 2017, his wife Amy operates the business
- For a few years, the company also published an online (and briefly print) newspaper
- It was also called Stanton Street
- Beto O’ Rourke modeled it on alternative periodicals like The Village Voice and New York Press
- Beto O’ Rourke was involved with El Paso civic organizations and nonprofit groups
- Such as the Rotary Club, United Way, and Center Against Sexual and Family Violence
- He was a member of the boards of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
- And the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at UTEP
- In 2012, O’Rourke filed for the Democratic primary against the eight-term Silvestre Reyes to represent Texas’s 16th congressional district
- He defeated his Republican opponent, Barbara Carrasco, in the general election with 65 percent of the vote
- On March 31, 2017, Beto O’ Rourke formally announced his candidacy for the United States Senate seat held by incumbent Republican Ted Cruz
- In March 2018, O’ Rourke became the Democratic Party nominee
- By winning 61.8 percent of the primary vote
- In late 2018, speculation began that O’ Rourke might run in the United States presidential election in 2020
- On March 13, El Paso TV station KTSM reported that O’ Rourke had decided to run for the 2020 presidency
- Beto O’ Rourke married Amy Hoover Sanders
- She is the daughter of Louann and Bill Sanders
- They were married at her parents’ ranch in Lamy, New Mexico, on September 24, 2005
- Bill Sanders is a real estate developer
- Louann Sanders is the director of education development for the La Fe Community Development Corporation
- And the executive director of the La Fe Preparatory charter school
- The couple and their three children live in El Paso’s Sunset Heights area in a Henry Trost-designed mission-style house
- There General Hugh Scott and Pancho Villa reportedly met in 1915
- On July 3, 2001, Beto O’ Rourke’s father was riding his bicycle along the shoulder of Pete Domenici Highway just across the New Mexico state line when he was struck from behind by a vehicle
- He was pronounced dead at the scene
- Beto O’ Rourke delivered the eulogy during the funeral service at St. Patrick’s Cathedral
- Political analysts classify O’ Rourke as a progressive, liberal, or centrist
- GovTrack placed O’ Rourke near the ideological center of the Democratic Party
- The American Civil Liberties Union gave him an 88 percent rating
- While the United States Chamber of Commerce, a more conservative group, gave him a 47 percent rating
Got anything to add?