ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke on Wednesday broke a promise to refrain from swearing on the campaign trail when answering a question from a voter in Virginia about transgender rights.
“In the commonwealth and in Texas, you can be fired based on your sexual orientation,” O’Rourke told a crowd assembled at a hotel in the northern Virginia town of Alexandria, before listing other anti-gay laws still on the books in the Lone Star State. “This is wrong. In Texas, we just debated a transgender bathroom bill. Seriously? After all the shit that happened, ah, all the stuff that happened in North Carolina …”
“Stuff! This microphone isn’t working right,” the former El Paso congressman said.
The rowdy audience of about 800 interrupted him twice over the course of his almost one-hour event, part of which was a speech and the other half dedicated to addressing queries from supporters.
O’Rourke also had to break up a disagreement in the crowd when one man accused another onlooker of knocking his camera.
“We’ll get to your question in just a second, sir. I just want to make sure everyone else can listen. It’s cool, it’s cool, it’s cool, it’s cool. I’m sorry that your camera was smacked. We are here with you, OK?” the 46-year-old father of three said to cheers and a chant of “Beto, Beto, Beto!”
The gathering, billed as a town hall, was the ninth stop O’Rourke made in Virginia over the course of his two-day swing. The White House hopeful greeted fans “who made the trip from our nation’s capital” by saying they came from “the future state of Washington, D.C.” He additionally quelled the concerns of one woman over his lack of airtime on cable news channels.
“We have held more town halls in the month and four days we’ve been doing this, I think, than any other candidate because meeting you eyeball-to-eyeball to me is so much more satisfying than being on cable TV and in a sound bite,” he said. “At some point, I may have to give in and be on your television sets, but right now, I want to be with you in person.”
O’Rourke is currently drawing about 8.4% support nationwide out of a crowded primary field of more than a dozen contenders, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average.
