- Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic Party’s nominee for the Texas gubernatorial election, was hospitalized for a bacterial infection and has since been discharged, according to Politico.
- O’Rourke announced on Twitter that he’d be “back on the road…as soon as I’m able.”
- This comes as O’Rourke, running against two-term incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, trails in the polls by 6.8 points, according to RealClearPolitics.
Former Democratic congressman and Texas gubernatorial nominee Beto O’Rourke has canceled all further campaign events after being hospitalized, he announced on Twitter.
O’Rourke announced his hospitalization on Twitter. He claimed that, after “feeling ill,” he was taken to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, on August 26th, where he was “diagnosed with a bacterial infection.”
O’Rourke also confirmed that he was placed on an intravenous (IV) antibiotics dispenser. The procedure, where antibiotics are injected directly into the bloodstream, is used for serious infections when oral antibiotics cannot reach tissues quickly enough.
O’Rourke had been discharged from Methodist Hospital Saturday and relocated to his home in El Paso, over 550 miles away in West Texas, according to Politico.
It was unclear what bacterial infection O’Rourke was diagnosed with, the severity of the condition and when or whether he will be fit to run for the rest of the campaign.
O’Rourke’s tweet said he would be “back on the road…as soon as I’m able.”
After feeling ill on Friday, I went to Methodist Hospital in San Antonio where I was diagnosed with a bacterial infection.
The extraordinary team there — from custodians to nurses and doctors — gave me excellent care and attention, including IV antibiotics and rest.
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) August 28, 2022
The infection comes as O’Rourke, running against two-term incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, is down in the polls. According to RealClearPolitics’s average of all major polls between July 9th and August 7th, O’Rourke trails Abbott by 6.8 points – a lead that has been consistent for the last year of the campaign.
The race is O’Rourke’s second statewide run and third major campaign in four years. Previously, O’Rourke ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018 against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, where he lost by a slim margin – 50.9% to 48.3% – despite Texas’s strong Republican voting record, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index.
During the campaign, O’Rourke, a three-term Congressman who represented the 16th district of Texas covering El Paso and its suburbs, gained prominence for his enthusiastic body language and off-the-cuff rhetoric. He would frequently stand on top of tables at bars and restaurants to address crowds.
O’Rourke also sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination but ended his campaign before the Iowa caucuses due to poor polling. During primary debates, he gained notoriety for proposing a mandatory buyback of some ‘assault-style’ firearms after the 2019 El Paso shooting, which killed 21 people, primarily of Hispanic descent. (RELATED: FACT CHECK: Did Beto O’Rourke tweet “It’s time to ban gun ownership across the board?”)
“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15 and AK-47,” he said, which was criticized by some Democrats for its direct ultimatum to gun owners. O’Rourke has since made gun control a centerpiece of his political brand.
O’Rourke was recently criticized for interrupting a press conference by Abbott, Cruz, and other officials about the joint response to the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24th, which killed 19 students and two teachers.
“You are doing nothing. You are offering up nothing. You said this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything,” O’Rourke, uninvited to the event, stood up and said during Abbott’s speech. He was then escorted out.
O’Rourke’s received a bipartisan rebuke for the move. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin shouted back at O’Rourke during the event, “I can’t believe you’re a sick son of a bitch that would come to a deal like this to make a political issue.”
Most recently, O’Rourke snapped at a member of the audience during one of his rallies, who laughed as he discussed his response to the Uvalde shooting. “It may be funny to you, motherfucker,” he said.
Neither O’Rourke’s campaign nor Methodist Hospital has responded to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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