At Columbia, O’Rourke learned the power of storytelling; he wrote fiction and adored The Odyssey (he jokes he named his son Ulysses because he didn’t have the nerve to call him Odysseus). He also learned how to stick to schedules and, most importantly, how to straddle different social worlds.

Erin Bertocci / Courtesy of Columbia University Archives Beto O’Rourke CC’95, right, was the captain of the heavyweight crew team. By Emma Buzbee and Noah Percy | November 1, 2018, 2:23 AM U.S. Representative Beto O’Rourke, CC ’95, was playing bass guitar in campus bars and rowing on the Hudson the last time Texas had a Democratic senator.

Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, a U.S. Representative from El Paso who is currently challenging Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) in his quest for a second term, is an insurgent firebrand with an incredibly bright political future… and a pretty interesting past.

While past political figures, most memorably a young Barack Obama, found their intellectual moorings among the city’s thinkers and strivers, Mr. O’Rourke’s seven New York years (four at Columbia...

Young Beto — which is what we’re calling him now, YB for funsies — lived in New York City for seven years, beginning with his four-year stint at Columbia University, where he rowed crew. Robert, as he was then known, balanced being in a punk-rock band with 4 a.m. wake-up times for crew practice; he was not particularly political, apparently.

Beto graduated from Columbia University in 1995, and he was arrested soon after that for committing a burglary at the University of Texas El Paso with two other people. His father, Patrick Francis O’Rourke, was the El Paso County Judge.

O'Rourke attended a private school in Virginia before attending Columbia University, where he majored in English Literature. Identifying as binational, O'Rourke is fluent in Spanish. During...

Beto O'Rourke is a lifelong El Pasoan. He attended Carlos Rivera and Mesita elementary schools and El Paso High School before graduating from Columbia University in 1995. He lives in Sunset Heights...

Founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the State of New York. Located in New York City and a member of the Ivy League.