Amy O'Rourke has mixed feelings about her husband's cursing
Amid a campaign swing for Beto O'Rourke Thursday in Las Vegas, Amy O'Rourke described a bittersweet relationship with her husband's penchant for profanity.
"I probably cringe when he curses," she said in an interview with CBS News.
Mindful of irritating conservative voters and her parents, Amy O'Rourke had reportedly urged her husband to limit his use of expletives as he campaigned to unseat Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz last year.
"There were some really wonderful people that [said], 'could you please get him to stop swearing so much?'" she recalled.
"But at the same time, I think Beto is at his best when he's just being himself and unfiltered, and speaking honestly and directly. And so if that means there's a curse word from time to time, I'd rather him be himself. I'd rather him be himself then try to stifle that," she added later.
Amy O'Rourke spoke with CBS News at the tail end of her Nevada debut, on the sidelines of a volunteer phone-banking event in Las Vegas. The trip is only her second solo outing for the campaign, following a visit last week to New Hampshire.
"When you're running for president, it's hard to be in every state and meet people as you would in local races," said Amy O'Rourke.
"I'm trying to go and meet people on my own and then bring those stories back and be able to talk with Beto about them and share people's perspectives," she explained.
As Beto O'Rourke was leading an "equity and justice" roundtable in California, his wife kicked off Thursday with an intimate, at-times emotional breakfast with Latina leaders and small business owners in Las Vegas.
"On August 17th, the police came to my house for my undocumented husband. By August 20th, my 14-year-old committed suicide," one attendee recounted to O'Rourke, through tears.
She met later with Roxann McCoy, president of the Las Vegas branch of the NAACP. And as her husband headed to a town hall in Colorado, she sat down with gun control activists, shooting survivors, and fellow Moms Demand Action members.
"Campaigns can be tough, and they're long and they're hard. And hearing those stories, it makes you want to fight that much harder every day," Amy O'Rourke reflected.
Despite a high-profile campaign relaunch and a viral moment out of the third Democratic presidential debate, the former Texas congressman has amassed comparatively little support against frontrunners Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren.
In a recent CBS News Battleground Tracker poll across the early presidential nominating contests, Beto O'Rourke cleared two points in only one state: Nevada.
Wesley Powers-Sabugo, whose Las Vegas home hosted Amy O'Rourke's final event of the day, told CBS News he had only one complaint out of Beto O'Rourke's performance on stage in Houston.
"I wished he would have used harder words," Powers-Sabugo joked.
"We love it when he swears. He's very passionate and it was very authentic."