Beto was bipartisan in Congress but that’s harder as Texas governor

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Beating Gov. Greg Abbott can be solely the start of Beto O’Rourke’s challenges. In a state the place Republicans will probably preserve management of the Legislature and all, or a majority, of statewide places of work, the proud Democrat would face an avalanche of resistance from throughout the aisle whereas making an attempt to ship on marketing campaign guarantees.

O’Rourke says it’s a place he is aware of nicely.

Throughout his six years in Congress, Democrats by no means held management of the House. Still, the previous El Paso consultant put his title on 54 payments from each events that have been signed into legislation and was praised by members of each events on the committees the place he served as being a severe, sensible legislator keen to achieve compromises to get issues executed. Only one of his sponsored bills passed into law, but most of his work as a legislator was on collective efforts just like the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

But tides have modified since he left workplace in 2019, and the laws he labored on is much from the political flashpoints dominating at present’s election cycle, together with points like weapons and reproductive rights which are topping his checklist of gubernatorial marketing campaign guarantees.

Still, O’Rourke insisted in a current interview there may be widespread floor on main coverage points, from training to well being care, and he’s happy with the friendships he’s made with Republicans on Capitol Hill which have grow to be among the most lasting components of his congressional legacy.

“I know that [compromise] has become a dirty word among hyperpartisan Republicans and even hyperpartisan Democrats, but it’s absolutely necessary if you’re going to accomplish anything in a democracy,” O’Rourke stated, recalling his time in Congress. “I would bring that experience and that outlook to my role as governor.”

As a congressman, O’Rourke served on among the most historically bipartisan committees on the Hill. The House Armed Services Committee is charged with advancing the National Defense Authorization Act annually, a behemoth spending measure that has handed on a bipartisan foundation for over six many years. He additionally served on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, which many members attempt to keep away from becoming a member of partly as a result of its work doesn’t lend itself to the bombastic soundbites that may launch a member’s public picture.

But O’Rourke referred to as his work on Veterans Affairs his most significant in Congress and stated that he particularly requested a seat on the committee owing to El Paso’s massive veteran inhabitants. He co-led the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee with U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, and the pair labored on laws to assist veterans transition to civilian life.

During a November 2018 subcommittee assembly simply as O’Rourke was leaving workplace following his failed Senate run, Arrington stated working with O’Rourke was “one of the joys of my service on the committee” and that he couldn’t have executed his work with out O’Rourke as a associate.

“We do battle and we have wildly different views, I’m certain, on many issues. But you wouldn’t know it with the way he treats me and I hope the way I treat him,” Arrington said at the time. “And we need a whole lot more of that in this place.”

Despite his effusive reward from the committee room 4 years in the past, Arrington declined to remark for this story.

Former U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colorado, fondly recalled working with O’Rourke on 2017 laws to develop psychological well being care to veterans who had an apart from honorable discharge. Coffman confronted a difficult reelection bid the subsequent yr, finally dropping his seat to Democrat Jason Crow, but O’Rourke nonetheless collaborated with him on the invoice regardless of the bushy electoral politics.

“I really appreciate his working with me to make it a bipartisan proposal because … this was a standard practice that Democratic leadership inform him not to work with me, really because I was a top target for the upcoming election,” Coffman stated in a current interview. Coffman is now serving as mayor of Aurora, Colorado.

Perhaps O’Rourke’s most well-known occasion of cross-aisle friendship was his marathon street journey with former U.S. Rep. Will Hurd from San Antonio to Washington after their flight plans have been canceled by the climate. The two members livestreamed the saga, discussing every little thing from politics to meals to music, as it rapidly went viral, garnering nicely needs from U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, then-House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The two later won Allegheny College’s Prize of Civility in Public Life for his or her demonstration of bipartisan chumminess. The two former members are nonetheless in shut contact at present.

But if elected governor, O’Rourke would endure more durable resistance to extra partisan points. O’Rourke has already made plans to withstand main Republican coverage agendas, promising to legalize abortion in Texas, implement stricter gun safety measures like raising the minimum age to buy an AR-style rifle and eliminating the state’s STAAR check for public schoolchildren. Any of those adjustments would require legislative motion. But when requested about his file on that entrance, O’Rourke demurred.

“I don’t know how much resistance you can provide as a member of the minority in one chamber of the legislative branch in Congress, so it’s probably not where I’d look to for examples,” he stated in an interview. “It was in finding common ground with … Republicans that were critical to delivering for my constituents and for the country.”

But the political panorama is much extra divisive at present than it was on the Veteran Affairs Committee when O’Rourke final served in workplace. Elise Stefanik, who’s now the No. 3 House Republican, served on the Armed Services Committee with O’Rourke. The two launched laws collectively to spice up staffing and infrastructure at ports of entry, and Stefanik praised her partner on the bill on the time as somebody “who understands how critical our ports of entry are for our economy, tourism and national security.”

But when requested not too long ago about her time working with O’Rourke, she had a decidedly totally different tone.

“Beto O’Rourke is a has-been, failed, gun-grabbing candidate. He is well-known for his fixed failed marketing campaign makes an attempt, not any accomplishments in Congress,” she stated in a current assertion for this story. “Texans already humiliated his state-wide Senate attempt for his attack on our Constitutional rights, the American people ended his failed Presidential bid, and once again Texans will send him and his unconstitutional anti-gun agenda home packing.”

Of the Republican lawmakers O’Rourke cited to the Tribune as companions on the Hill, solely Coffman would again up his fond tales about their time working collectively.

Cornyn, with whom O’Rourke said he worked on border security issues back in 2013, declined to remark for this story. Former U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-New Mexico, a deeply conservative Republican whom O’Rourke stated collaborated with him on border points, additionally wouldn’t speak. Former U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texan who chaired the Armed Services Committee throughout O’Rourke’s tenure, additionally declined to remark. Hurd didn’t reply to a number of requests for remark.

Much of the silence from the Republican aspect might be attributed to the election season, when any type of reward for the opposing group would result in a really stern talking-to from higher-ups in the social gathering.

Chris Evans, a spokesperson for O’Rourke, retorted O’Rourke has “has always put people over party by working with anyone, anywhere, anytime to deliver for Texans. That meant putting politics aside and finding common ground with Republicans including Elise Stefanik.”

O’Rourke additionally careworn Texas just isn’t Congress and that there are nonetheless a number of coverage areas the place he may discover a path ahead with Republicans, together with rising instructor salaries, increasing Medicaid protection and repairing primary infrastructure in rural counties. Even on contentious points like reproductive rights, O’Rourke identified most Texas voters polled towards the state’s restrictive abortion ban.

“Who knows what the final [reproductive rights] legislation will look like, but I don’t begin by thinking that we don’t get anything done or that this is impossible or that we don’t agree on some of the basics here on these really important issues,” O’Rourke stated.

U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Fort Worth, who joined Congress on the similar time as O’Rourke and is shut private mates with him, likened O’Rourke’s management type to that of former Gov. George W. Bush, who was identified to pop into legislators’ places of work and ask what they wanted to do to get the job executed.

During their time in Congress collectively, Veasey and O’Rourke would usually socialize with different members of their freshman class, together with Democrats and Republicans, even forming a dinner membership. It was a type of pleasant outreach that might go a good distance in Austin, Veasey stated, including that O’Rourke “knows how to get along with people well.”

O’Rourke asserted the identical, claiming Texas politics aren’t as “knee jerk” as federal politics and that there’s extra willingness to cross the aisle. He cited the truth that Democrats chair committees in the Republican-controlled state Legislature, whereas the minority virtually by no means chairs committees in Congress. But he is aware of the partisan resistance as governor can be totally different than the coverage disagreements he handled on two comparatively bipartisan Congressional committees.

“It definitely is going to be harder, yet it is literally impossible unless we win this election,” he stated.