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Beto O'Rourke

Beto O'Rourke

Beto O’Rourke is a former representative of Texas’s 16th Congressional District. He represented the district from 2013 until 2019, when he gave up his seat to run a senate campaign against incumbent Ted Cruz, which O’Rourke lost. He received a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Columbia University. In 2019, he ran for the Democratic nomination for president.

Beto O'Rourke Website

Scorecard

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Pants on Fire

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For more details, see the Principles of PolitiFact

Latest Fact-Checks By Beto O'Rourke

Clear

Beto O'Rourke
stated on June 27, 2022 an Instagram post

"Under Abbott, Texas leads the nation in rape offenses while the rate of arrests for rape has fallen by nearly half."

Mostly True

By Nusaiba Mizan • August 9, 2022

Beto O'Rourke
stated on May 29, 2022 a tweet

"38,000 Texans had their license to carry denied, revoked, or suspended over the last five years because law enforcement deemed them too dangerous to carry a loaded gun in public. But thanks to Greg Abbott's new law, they don't need a license to carry anymore."

Mostly False

By Nusaiba Mizan • July 21, 2022

Beto O'Rourke
stated on May 25, 2022 remarks in Uvalde County, Texas

Texas is "50th in the nation in mental health care access."

Mostly True

May 25, 2022

Beto O'Rourke
stated on April 23, 2022 an Instagram post

"Under Greg Abbott, property taxes have gone up $20 billion."

Mostly True

By Nusaiba Mizan • May 19, 2022

Beto O'Rourke
stated on November 19, 2021 a rally

"Right now, in the average Texas fourth grade classroom, 7 out of 10 kids cannot read at grade level."

Mostly True

By Nusaiba Mizan • January 28, 2022

Beto O'Rourke
stated on November 19, 2021 a rally

"Expanding Medicaid, which if we had done at the beginning of the Abbott administration, would have brought in $100 billion to this state's economy."

Mostly True

By Nusaiba Mizan • January 10, 2022

Beto O'Rourke
stated on February 16, 2021 a tweet

“Energy experts and State House Dems, among others, were warning of this (the Texas power blackout) for years.”

True

By Amy Sherman • February 19, 2021

Beto O'Rourke
stated on October 16, 2019 an interview

"To be clear, I’m not talking about confiscating anybody’s guns."

False

October 21, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on September 4, 2019 an interview

"There are 390 million guns out on the streets of a country of 329 million people."

True

By Madlin Mekelburg • September 9, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on August 3, 2019 a press conference

Says of El Paso that some years, "in a city of almost 700,000, we had five murders the entire year. Our average over the last 10 years is 18 (murders per year). We exceeded that average just on one day" after a gunman opened fire at a Walmart in the city.

True

By Madlin Mekelburg • August 5, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on July 30, 2019 in a debate

Says "we lose nearly 40,000 people in this country to gun violence, a number that no other country comes even close to."

Mostly False

By Madlin Mekelburg • August 2, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on July 11, 2019 a public forum

"We are incarcerating more children than any time ... since we interned Japanese-Americans during World War II"

Mostly True

By Mica Soellner • July 26, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on June 13, 2019 an interview on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

"The Census is predicting a 6% undercount that will be targeted against nonwhites in this country — so Hispanics, African Americans, communities of color" if a citizenship question is asked.

Half-True

By Stefanie Pousoulides • July 1, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on June 13, 2019 an interview with Stephen Colbert

In 2018, when he ran for senator, "young voter turnout in early voting was up 500%. We won more votes than any Democrat has in the history of the state of Texas."

True

By Louis Jacobson • June 24, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on May 29, 2019 a television appearance

"For more than a year, I have been saying that it’s time for Congress to act and begin impeachment proceedings."

Mostly False

By Madlin Mekelburg • June 10, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on April 29, 2019 climate change plan

"Race is the No. 1 indicator for where toxic and polluting facilities are today."

Mostly True

By Miriam Valverde • May 14, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on April 29, 2019 climate change plan

"60 million Americans live in a place where the water they drink is unsafe."

Mostly False

By Miriam Valverde • May 7, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on April 16, 2019 a speech.

"Disparities in infant mortality between white America and black America (are) greater today, in 2019, than in the year 1850..."

Mostly True

By Warren Fiske • April 23, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on March 14, 2019 a campaign stop in Iowa

"Nearly half of public school teachers in Texas are working a second or a third job, not for kicks, not for extra spending cash, but just to make ends meet."

Half-True

By Miriam Valverde • March 19, 2019

Beto O'Rourke
stated on February 8, 2019 a blog post

When visa holders exit the United States and enter Mexico, "if they leave through a land port of entry we literally have no clue if they are still here or have returned to their country of origin."

Mostly True

By Miriam Valverde • February 15, 2019

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Latest Fact-Checks About Beto O'Rourke

Viral image
stated on September 21, 2019 a Facebook post

Says a photo shows Beto O’Rourke "in college drunk and pissing his pants."

Pants on Fire!

October 2, 2019

Viral image
stated on September 3, 2019 a Facebook post

The Odessa shooter "had a Beto sticker on his truck."

False

September 13, 2019

X posts
stated on March 18, 2019 a tweet

Says Beto O'Rourke "gave the remaining $4.5+ mill from his Senate race to (the Texas Democratic Party) a few months ago, & the Party sent the money back to him on the day of his announcement."

Pants on Fire!

By Madlin Mekelburg • March 20, 2019

Viral image
stated on March 14, 2019 a Facebook post

A photograph shows Beto O’Rourke nearly nude with the words "feminist," "atheist" and "slut" on his body.

Pants on Fire!

March 15, 2019

Club for Growth
stated on March 10, 2019 a TV ad

Says Beto O'Rourke's "father-in-law, a billionaire real estate developer who bankrolled a Super PAC to buy Beto a congressional seat…"

Mostly False

By Madlin Mekelburg • March 14, 2019

Club for Growth
stated on March 10, 2019 in a TV ad

Says Beto O’Rourke crashed into barriers, "causing a collision while driving drunk, then fleeing the scene to avoid accountability."

Mostly True

By Madlin Mekelburg • March 14, 2019

Club for Growth
stated on March 10, 2019 in a TV ad

Says Beto O’Rourke perpetuated stereotypes, "casting aspersions on working women whose ‘only qualifications seemed to be large breasts and tight buttocks’."

Mostly True

By Madlin Mekelburg • March 14, 2019

Club for Growth
stated on March 10, 2019 in a TV ad

Says Beto O’Rourke did his father-in-law’s "bidding on the El Paso City Council, pushing a downtown redevelopment scheme to bulldoze a poor Hispanic neighborhood while enriching developers like his father-in-law."

Half-True

By Madlin Mekelburg • March 14, 2019

America First
stated on March 1, 2019 a tweet

Says Beto O’Rourke and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand "have both said they would tear down the wall if elected president."

Half-True

By Miriam Valverde • March 7, 2019

Viral image
stated on February 13, 2019 a Facebook post

Quotes Beto O’Rourke as saying, "If I could throw two kinds of people in the garbage it would be the elderly and wounded veterans. When a tool breaks you don’t fix it, you throw it in the damn trash."

Pants on Fire!

February 14, 2019

Donald Trump
stated on February 11, 2019 a speech in El Paso, Texas

Says that at Beto O’Rourke’s rally in El Paso, there were "200 people, 300 people."

False

By Louis Jacobson • February 12, 2019

Viral image
stated on January 30, 2019 a post on Facebook

Says Nancy Pelosi and Beto O’Rourke were photographed with El Chapo.

Pants on Fire!

February 6, 2019

Donald Trump
stated on October 22, 2018 a rally for Republican candidates in Houston

Says Beto O’Rourke "voted to shield MS-13 gang members from deportation."

Mostly False

By W. Gardner Selby • October 25, 2018

Ted Cruz
stated on October 16, 2018 During a debate in San Antonio

Says Beto O'Rourke "voted in favor of a $10 a barrel tax on every barrel of oil produced in the state of Texas."

Mostly False

By Johnathan Silver • October 19, 2018

Ted Cruz
stated on September 28, 2018 a debate

California "is hemorrhaging population."

Mostly False

By Chris Nichols • September 28, 2018

Ted Cruz
stated on September 21, 2018 a debate at Southern Methodist University

Says Beto O’Rourke described police as "modern-day Jim Crow."

Mostly False

By W. Gardner Selby • September 25, 2018

Texans Are
stated on September 12, 2018 a TV ad

Says Beto O’Rourke voted "against body armor for Texas sheriffs patrolling the border."

False

By W. Gardner Selby • September 13, 2018

Ted Cruz
stated on September 4, 2018 a video

Says Beto O’Rourke said he’s grateful that people are burning or desecrating the American flag.

False

By W. Gardner Selby • September 5, 2018

Ted Cruz
stated on August 28, 2018 an online video ad

Says Beto O’Rourke "voted against" Hurricane Harvey "tax relief."

Mostly True

By W. Gardner Selby • August 29, 2018

Silvestre Reyes
stated on May 22, 2012 a TV ad

Says Beto O’Rourke "has a criminal record that includes DWI and burglary arrests."

True

By W. Gardner Selby • August 22, 2018

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