There’s a chance that the US could have a punk-rock president in the near future, with Beto O’Rourke announcing his candidacy earlier today.
For a few months now, we’ve been talking about the musical history of US politician Beto O’Rourke. Despite having lost the Senate election in Texas last year, O’Rourke has been making headlines for quite a while now, thanks in part to his love of music, and his own musical history.
Back in September, we spoke about how Beto O’Rourke had been in a band with At The Drive-In’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala back in the early ’90s. Named Foss, the group didn’t exactly go too far, releasing a handful of independent records and touring North America before breaking up.
Since then, O’Rourke has managed to not only drop lyrics from The Clash in one of his speeches, but he’s been filmed air-drumming to The Who, has scored the support of artists such as The National and Willie Nelson, and has even been spotted in the audience of a Metallica concert.
Cedric Bixler-Zavala had also put his support behind his former bandmate in the wake of his failed Senatorial campaign. “You made them tremble with the simple prospect of real change,” he wrote. “You are one of us. I have nothing but respect and admiration for you. I’m in tears. I can only hope you run for president.”
Now, the prospect of a hard-rocking president are looking up, with Beto O’Rourke informally telling Texan news station KTSM (via text message) that he’s entering the presidential race.
“I’m really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents,” O’Rourke explained. “It’s a big part of why I’m running. This city is the best example of this country at its best.”
https://twitter.com/MonaLisaGlam/status/1106055709186232320
While a formal announcement is still incoming, Consequence Of Sound notes that this news comes just a day after a Vanity Fair interview was published, which features the politician citing Minor Threat and Fugazi’s Ian MacKaye as a large influence in his life.
“I have so much reverence for him and he means so much to me in my life,” O’Rourke explained. “He really did represent this super-ethical way, not just of being in a band, or running a label, or putting on shows, but of just living.”
“I didn’t want to make money, didn’t want to be in business,” O’Rourke explained of how this way of living inspired him. “My dad was so disappointed. He took out [college] loans, he knew that I took out loans.”
“I was like, ‘You know, I wanna make art. I wanna write. I wanna make music. I wanna create things.’”
We’ll have to wait and see how Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign turns out, but as we recently said, if we can get him to enlist Albuquerque mayor Tim Keller as his running mate, America might have one hard-rockin’ political future on its hands.
Check out Beto O’Rourke’s old band, Foss:
