Beto O’Rourke is ratcheting up his new emphasis on confiscating assault-style weapons and is taking a looser, more aggressive campaign style in order to push himself back into relevancy, even if it creates a liability for other Democrats.
“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, we’re not going to allow it to be used on fellow Americans anymore,” O’Rourke, 46, said during Thursday’s Democratic presidential debate in Houston.
The candidate, mired in the low single digits, frequently cites the early August mass shooting that left 22 dead in El Paso, his hometown.
O’Rourke long resisted calling for confiscation of AR-15 rifles and implementing a federal firearm licensing program, but he now calls for both. While he pledged early in his campaign to refrain from swearing, he now freely drops F-bombs on the campaign trail.
“I think he did see he was languishing in the polls, and he needed to do something to get back in the mix,” Democratic strategist and pollster Brad Bannon told the Washington Examiner.
Riding high on ample attention following his unsuccessful 2018 Senate bid challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, O’Rourke raised a massive $6.1 million in the first 24 hours after launching his presidential campaign in March. He hit 9.5% support in a RealClearPolitics average of Democratic primary polls in early April, in third place behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden.
Early enthusiasm for O’Rourke, though, quickly died away. He raised only $3.6 million from April through June and earned about 3% support in most recent polls.
“It almost seemed to me like he was just saying, ‘OK, I’m just going to let it fly, I’m not registering at all, so I’m just going to not be cautious anymore,’” Bannon said about O’Rourke’s debate performance. “And it led to a very impressive moment.”
O’Rourke’s “hell yes” to assault weapon confiscation, however, may come at the expense of alienating some in his party and jeopardizing other Democrats in 2020.
“I, frankly, think that clip will be played for years at Second Amendment rallies with organizations to try to scare people by saying, Democrats are coming for your guns,” Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said Friday. “I don’t think having our presidential candidates, like Congressman O’Rourke did, say that we’re going to try and take people’s guns against their will is a wise either policy or political move.”
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, agreed that O’Rourke’s comment could play into the hands of Republicans.
“When even this president and even Mitch McConnell are at least pretending to be open to reforms, we know that we have a moment on our hands. Let’s make the most of it and get these things done,” Buttigieg told CNN on Sunday.
In an apparent response to Buttigieg, O’Rourke stuck to his new platform and style. “Well, shit, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump pretending to be interested in something that is literally a life or death issue for 40 thousand Americans — that’s how many are killed every year through gun violence — is simply not enough,” O’Rourke said on Sunday.
Some signs indicate that O’Rourke’s new demeanor and debate performance are helping push him back into relevancy.
The former Texas congressman had a 6% increase in cable news mentions the week of the debate compared the week before, and he saw the largest post-debate increase in net favorability of any candidate (23.9% to 32.5%), according to a FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll. O’Rourke’s campaign said it saw its biggest hour of fundraising of this quarter during the debate.
“It at least got him back in the conversation,” Bannon said, adding that O’Rourke’s tone “may give him an opening to be a bigger player in the race.”
O’Rourke earned praise from other candidates on the debate stage for his response to the El Paso shooting. “Beto, God love you for standing so courageously in the midst of that tragedy,” California Sen. Kamala Harris said.
The new approach, though, may be too little, too late. Bannon said it would have served O’Rourke better months earlier in his campaign. “He didn’t take advantage of the opportunity he had when he first announced,” he said.
