After a stop for some ice cream at the Penn State Creamery and a walk through campus with the College Democrats, Beto O’Rourke took the stage Tuesday morning at the HUB-Robeson Center’s Heritage Hall by leading a ‘We are…’ cheer with the crowd of hundreds who had packed inside.
The 46-year-old former three-term Congressman from Texas and current Democratic presidential hopeful made State College one of his earliest campaign visits, five days after announcing he would be running for president, as he made his way to a stop in the early primary state of New Hampshire on Wednesday.
O’Rourke — the first 2020 candidate to make a visit to Penn State, though likely not the last given Pennsylvania’s position as a battleground state — spoke about a range of topics including immigration, criminal justice reform, health care, the Green New Deal, economic equity and more during an hour of prepared remarks and a question-and-answer period.
‘All of this that I talk about and everything we can do to meet it is premised on the greatest mechanism that humankind has ever invented, to call forth the genius and ingenuity, the resolve and the power of a people, and that is our democracy,’ O’Rourke said. ‘Our democracy right now is as broken as it has been in our lifetimes. It is being attacked from without and it is being attacked from within.’
He spoke hopefully, however, about the future. On immigration, he cited his hometown of El Paso and its ‘bi-national population,’ of native-born and immigrant Americans. He noted El Paso’s regular rankings as one of the safest cities in the United States for decades, both before and after construction of a border barrier.
Many who come to the southern border seeking refuge are fleeing countries where they are no longer safe and risk their lives on long treks to ultimately protect themselves and their families, he said. But, he added, they are met with separation from their children and deportation with little hope of being reunited. Solutions fall on people across the political spectrum.
‘[It’s] tantamount to torture, a cruelty that we try to avert our eyes from, turn our backs on or lay the blame on one person or one party,’ he said. ‘As long as these conditions exist, as long as we do these kinds of things to our fellow human beings, it is on all of us.’
Beto O’Rourke speaks to students near the Penn State Lion Shrine. Photo by Noah Riffe for StateCollege.com
He said he favors protecting the status of more than 1 million DREAMers, ensuring reunification of separated families and rewriting ‘our immigration laws in our own image.’
O’Rourke also said that the U.S. has ‘an economy that works too well for too few and not well enough for too many.’ He wants to see that everyone who works is able to earn a living wage, citing in particular school teachers who sometimes work multiple jobs to make ends meet. On the issue of education, he also said he wants to implement universally-available pre-K starting at age 4.
He used as an example of economic inequity the recent college admissions scandal in which wealthy families are accused of bribery and cheating to gain admission for their children to elite universities.
‘There are families who can’t put together three or four hundred dollars to be able to go to this university as a down payment on the tuition,’ he said. ‘When we do not allow access to opportunity, not only is that bad for the families who cannot avail themselves of these opportunities, it’s a drag on our entire economy. It’s not allowing America to realize its potential.’
Another opportunity all Americans should have access to, O’Rourke said, is high-quality, affordable health care. Of the struggle for many to receive needed care, he said, ‘not only is it unconscionable, it’s the most expensive way that we have devised to fail one another,’ because the cost of providing end-of-life care for those who cannot afford it is passed on to others in the form of higher premiums and taxes.
O’Rourke said he favors a proposal called ‘Medicare for America,’ rather than ‘Medicare for All.’
‘If you have employer-based health care and you like it, you keep it. Your doctor, your network, what works for you right now,’ he said. ‘If you don’t have insurance or don’t like the insurance you already have, you enroll in Medicare. It costs a lot of money. It will be measured in the trillions of dollars. It’s a lot less expensive than taking care of people at the end of life who have never been treated in the first place.’
Beto O’Rourke speaks to students while walking through Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center. Photo by Noah Riffe for StateCollege.com
Climate change, meanwhile, is ‘the most existential challenge of them all,’ he said, noting unprecedented wildfires in California, record rainfall and flooding in Texas and severe droughts in other parts of the world that have led to war and mass migration.
The Trump administration, he said, ‘has dug us an awful hole’ and made the U.S. the only nation not working with the rest of the world on the Paris Climate Accord.
He said he supports the Green New Deal proposal, investments in renewable energy and transitioning from fossil fuel, and for government and business to ‘harness a more conscientious capitalism that brings ingenuity and innovation and entrepreneurship to bear on this problem as well.’
O’Rourke also noted the Green New Deal’s emphasis on the economy and job creation — with wind and solar energy among the fastest growing job sectors currently — and said it has a role in repairing and rebuilding communities that have born the brunt of pollution and climate change, which are often poorer communities and communities of color.
He said that African-Americans are also disproportionately subject to arrest for marijuana possession when its usage is relatively the same among all races in the U.S. He called for a nationwide end to marijuana prohibition and for the expungement of all marijuana possession convictions.
O’Rourke contrasted that with the opioid epidemic, which he said was brought on by pharmaceutical companies who knew of their addictive properties but marketed them heavily to doctors. He called for better treatment for those who have become addicted to opioids, and who have often turned to heroin and fentanyl, and for pharmaceutical executives to be held accountable.
Beto O’Rourke speaks in Heritage Hall at Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center. Photo by Noah Riffe for StateCollege.com
With a first-day fundraising total of $6.1 million, O’Rourke said his campaign won’t accept any PAC money. In response to an audience member’s question, O’Rourke said the campaign would also be releasing the number of donors and average donation figures.
The same audience member was pointed with a second question: ‘When are we going to get an actual policy from you instead of platitudes and nice stories?’
O’Rourke answered with more on many of the issues he had discussed earlier and added, ‘In every single policy area, I’m trying to describe not just the goal and aspiration, but the path we will take to get there. I understand if we disagree or come to different conclusions. That’s the genius of our democracy.’
Asked about the several women candidates in the Democratic field and how he would empower women in Congress, O’Rourke said that he pledges to support whomever the Democratic nominee is.
‘I count myself lucky to be in this field. I remind myself constantly that come summer of 2020, we’re all going to be on the same team, behind the same nominee,’ he said. ‘Whoever she or he happens to be, we want them to be successful in the November election against Donald Trump. We want them to be even more successful as the next president of the United States of America. So this campaign cannot be about tearing people down, denigrating our opponents… We have to be about lifting people up, expecting the best out of them and making sure at the end of the day we’re all on the same team.’
Beto O’Rourke speaks in Heritage Hall at Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center. Photo by Noah Riffe for StateCollege.com
He also said he would sign the Equality Act, guaranteeing ‘the full civil rights of every American regardless of sexual orientation.’ He said that in Texas someone can be fired or not hired because of sexual orientation and that thousands of children languish in foster care while ‘in Texas you can be ‘too gay’ to adopt.’
‘The equality act gets us a long way in addressing this injustice,’ he said.
Katierose Epstein, president of the Penn State College Democrats, said her organization does not endorse a primary candidate, but said O’Rourke ‘represents a new, young generation of leaders by working to tackle big issues head on.’
Some in attendance on Tuesday said before O’Rourke spoke that they were curious to learn more about his specific policy positions.
‘From what I’ve heard, I like his policies,’ said Benjamin Martin, a Penn State freshman from Pittsburgh who said he’s keeping an open mind before next year’s primary. ‘I just want to hear more about what he’s planning on doing and changing. The stuff he has made his landmark issues, I tend to agree with, such as for-profit prison reform. I think that’s something that’s really overdue.’
Freshman Victoria Belka said she believes it’s important to learn as much as she can about each candidate before the primary. She said she’s been most interested in the extensive policy proposals of entrepreneur-turned-candidate Andrew Yang, but that she has not made up her mind about any candidate. She, too, wanted to know more about where O’Rourke stands on a number of issues.
‘I am reluctantly supportive right now,’ Belka said. ‘I feel I don’t know enough about how he stands on some of the issues that are important to me, like conservation of national parks and other issues that aren’t necessarily headline issues. So that’s why I’m here, to scope out more information.’
Beto O’Rourke talks with students at Penn State’s HUB-Robeson Center. Photo by Noah Riffe for StateCollege.com
Former Centre County Commissioner Jon Eich said O’Rourke has proven to be charismatic and was interested to hear what O’Rourke had to offer.
Long active in local government and Democratic politics, Eich said he believes local Democrats likely rank health care and the environment among their top issues. He also said he expects many more candidate visits to the area over the next year and a half.
‘This is the blue dot in the center of the state, 45,000 students, a lot of which get involved in campaigns,’ he said. ‘I think you’ll see some of those candidates setting up headquarters here to reach out to central Pennsylvania.’
View more photos of O’Rourke’s visit by Noah Riffe.
