It's been argued from some in the progressive wing of the Democratic Party that O'Rourke's popularity within Texas was due to him running against Ted Cruz from the left - refusing to take PAC money, supporting Medicare for All and publicly supporting Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. It was also suggested that the enthusiasm for O'Rourke was merely because of Ted Cruz's low approval rating, with only 27% strongly supporting and 31% strongly disapproving of Cruz. Morning Consult's Senator popularity rankings gave Ted Cruz a 36% disapproval rating.
O'Rourke's popularity was clearly evident during his Senate run, breaking the record for the most amount of money raised in a single quarter by a US Senate candidate with $38.1m raised in the third quarter of 2018. Celebrity endorsements also poured in for Beto, with the likes of Beyonce, Lebron James, Jim Carrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Travis Scott and Eva Longoria among many others. Progressive YouTuber and host of Secular Talk, Kyle Kulinski even described Beto O'Rourke as a Bernie-style Democrat.
This enthusiasm seemingly died down in the months after O'Rourke announced his decision to run for President in 2020. O'Rourke has continuously polled between 1% and 4% and had to 'relaunch' his flailing presidential campaign and has had to try different things in order to stand out on the debate stage, things like swearing during speeches and promising a confiscatory gun control policy if elected. A gun control policy which some media outlets have deemed as a gift to the right, as they would be able to rile up their base, playing on the fears of fierce Second Amendment advocates.
O'Rourke caused a media storm because of an answer he gave to media outlets regarding the August shooting in El Paso, Texas - because he said naughty words. When asked what could be done in response to the shooting, O'Rourke claimed "I don't know, but one thing I do know is that this is fucked up!" O'Rourke, in his bid to be edgy and stand out amongst the crowded Democratic field has also used the word "shit" in his speeches, which in the era of civility and respectability politics is seen as taking a brave stand and breaking the mold of your average politician.
The problem with all of this is that it's incredibly forced, O'Rourke had been competing with Pete Buttigieg for who could do the best fake Obama impression - speaking in a mild, mannered tone, taking short breaks between words etc. Buttigieg won that competition, so O'Rourke had to find another way to stand out and settled on saying bad words, standing on tables and being edgy.
O'Rourke's first "this is fucked up" gained him heaps of free media exposure and viral tweets, so his campaign seized on the short-lived popularity this bought him and immediately made this HIS thing.
How do we know that the swearing is forced? Take this for instance: On August 31st, Beto posted a tweet, a video with the phrase "this is fucked up", a tweet which went viral and received 23,500 retweets and 97,000 likes. Immediately, media outlets began covering him and the phrase he used, here's an article, on the same day, from the Daily Beast for example. Now, by September 2nd, O'Rourke's presidential merchandise store is selling shirts with the phrase "this is fucked up" printed on them, with proceeds going towards groups like Moms Demand Action and March For Our Lives.
Democrats and news pundits have asked O'Rourke why he doesn't drop out and challenge Republican Senator John Cornyn, given his obvious popularity in Texas and the opportunity for the Democrats to take back the Senate.
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