Ep. 523 — Beto O'Rourke

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 • 7.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 February 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Beto O’Rourke shot to national prominence in 2018 when he narrowly lost to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in an unexpectedly close election. Two years later, he ran in the Democratic presidential primary, and, in 2022, he ran for governor of Texas. While the three back-to-back races were unsuccessful, they generated enthusiasm and energy and at times helped reinvigorate the Democratic Party in Texas. Beto joined David to talk about the political fight in Texas, raising three children while running three successive campaigns, why he decided to run for governor, gun violence and its impact on young voters, immigration, and what he sees for his political future.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Axe Files, with
0:12.6	your host, David Axelrod.
0:18.9	I sat down this week with Beto O'Rourke, the former congressman from El Paso, whose energetic
0:24.0	near-miss campaign against Senator Ted Cruz, made him a national figure, but whose subsequent
0:29.5	races for President in 2020 and for Governor of Texas last year ran into choppy waters.
0:35.3	Beto, who is currently a Pritzker Fellow at the Institute of Politics, reflected on those
0:40.2	races, on lessons learned, on what was gained and what was lost.
0:44.7	He talked about the future.
1:01.1	Where you're a Fellow, so happy to have you here.
1:31.0	To part of the point you just made, you've just gone through three successive election cycles,
1:40.6	huge races, all enveloping.
1:44.8	How does one, with varying levels of success, but how do you decompress?
1:51.0	How do you, how you do, and I guess I'm asking.
1:56.5	In all the important ways I'm doing great, Amy and I are continuing to raise our kids
2:03.2	in El Paso, Texas, and they're just flourishing.
2:06.1	Our oldest Ulysses is a sophomore, a sister Molly is a freshman right behind him.
2:11.4	Goes by fast, their youngest brothers in sixth grade.
2:15.4	He's the one who still talks to us.
2:17.2	Yeah, exactly.
2:18.2	Other two are monosyllabic, or maybe even just kind of a nod when they come in.
2:25.2	It's been wonderful and extraordinarily restorative.
2:29.3	I've been spending a lot of time outdoors, which has always been good for me in life.
	...

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