Robert Francis O’Rourke is running against Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. You may know the challenger better by the name Beto O’Rourke. The Scrapbook is generally reluctant to bring up the names and nicknames of public figures (after what Idaho senator Mike Crapo must have endured in middle school, he’ll get no grief from us!), but the question whether “Beto” is a genuine family nickname or the result of a political makeover has dogged the Democratic challenger’s campaign.
Beto (pronounced Beh-toe, with a short e) is a Spanish-language nickname for Roberto. O’Rourke has circulated a photograph of himself as a child wearing a shirt with the name Beto on it, but the Washington Free Beacon discovered an item in Columbia University’s student newspaper, the Spectator, dating back to O’Rourke’s college days there, that called him Rob O’Rourke.
The Cruz campaign has ridiculed O’Rourke for the name change, most recently with a country-music radio jingle: “If you’re gonna run in Texas, you can’t be a liberal man. / I remember reading stories, liberal Robert wanted to fit in. / So he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin.” (It sounds better—well, slightly—when it’s sung.)
Of course, ridiculing O’Rourke for his name is a bold move for a man christened Rafael and makes Cruz seem a touch mean. We would have advised the Cruz campaign to leave the nominative tomfoolery to respectable outfits like the Free Beacon and, well, The Scrapbook.
Is there more to the story of how Rob O’Rourke the Ivy Leaguer became Beto O’Rourke the aspiring politician? Will the real Rob, Robert, Beto, or Roberto please stand up?
