The Politics of Beto and Amy O’Rourke’s Marriage
Beto O’Rourke plonked down on his living room sofa beside his wife, Amy, and promptly removed his shoes and socks. It was a late February morning, weeks before announcing his candidacy for president, and Beto had just returned from his favorite hike in the nearby Franklin Mountains.Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke packs homemade cookies as he talks to his wife, Amy Hoover Sanders, in their home in the historic Sunset Heights neighborhood of El Paso.
Amy Hoover Sanders, left, walks with daughter Molly O’Rourke as Amy’s husband and Molly’s father, Beto O’Rourke, walks on stage at the Paramount Theatre after a documentary on him was shown March 9 in Austin.
Beto O’Rourke and his wife, Amy, at a rally in El Paso Nov. 5, 2018. He lost the midterm election to incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz . Before Amy and Beto decided to run for president, before they were married or even born, Amy’s dad took Beto’s mom out on a date. Beto O’Rourke and Amy at Beto’s mother’s house in 2006. Bill Sanders moved out of El Paso, got married to a woman who raised their five children while he was mostly away making so much money that he’d be called the “Warren Buffett of real estate.”
Pat’s political career had been derailed in the 1980s when cops found a condom filled with white powder in his Toyota Land Cruiser. He claimed it had been planted by his enemies, and though he was never charged, his reputation never fully recovered. She went to Williams College with dreams of working in education and raising a family; moved with a boyfriend to Guatemala for a year to teach English, break up and move back to the states.
And then there were the pranks: the remote-controlled cockroach in the kitchen, the “Psycho”-style scares in the shower. One time, according to a friend, Beto collected an especially verdant turd from one of their kids’ diapers and put it in a bowl, telling Amy it was avocado. They had big ambitions, but they were local. Amy helped start and run a charter school in El Paso, and Beto made a name for himself as an up-and-comer on the city council. Politics and family didn’t always mix.
Beto O’Rourke, Amy and Ulysses at Molly’s volleyball game in 2017. “I think Ulysses is more sensitive and doesn’t necessarily get along with Molly and Henry, and so he needs that person to look up to,” Amy said. “And if Beto is not here, we know some high school kids that he just idolizes.”The first time Beto suggested to Amy that he’d like to run for Congress, she cried. She didn’t want him to become some kind of D.C. jerk. The morning after the most recent election, the one he lost to Sen.
“I have figured out a way to fulfill my purpose and be the mom that I want,” she said. “And I in no way wanted him to sacrifice that sense of purpose.”
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