How intelligent is Beto O'Rourke? Laurence Tribe's opinion.

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5. An "artist at heart" who argued with conservatives at Columbia

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2018/11/01/punk-rocker-rower-under-the-radar-student-beto-orourkes-time-at-columbia/
Punk rocker, rower, under-the-radar student: Beto O’Rourke’s time at Columbia
By Emma Buzbee and Noah Percy | November 1, 2018, 2:23 AM

“In my mind, he’s an artist at heart but was moved to enter politics in city council in El Paso and for Congress by issues and by conscience,” Guinn said. “I don’t think he was out to become a celebrity; that wasn’t his guiding principle at Columbia.”

Though not driven by politics or academics, O’Rourke’s friends described him as a motivated member of the Columbia community. Though the heavyweight team was a small program at the time, it still required significant commitment.

According to Grant, the two of them, unlike most of their teammates from elite New England schools, were walk-on athletes who had never rowed before. He said O’Rourke would get into spirited debates with his teammates who held more conservative viewpoints—the only mention of O’Rourke’s political activity in college from any of the classmates interviewed by Spectator.

Though currently there are multiple faculty members in the English department who taught when O’Rourke was a student and though many are enthusiastic supporters of his campaign now, none remembered teaching him.

Guinn, however, said he was not surprised by this. He described O’Rourke as interested in music and literature, but not as the type of student to make himself known to professors.


Beto O’Rourke CC’95, right, was the captain of the heavyweight crew team.