Quick Answer: No

Facts + Opinion

Former three term Congressman of the 16th Congressional District of Texas, Robert “Beto” O’ Rourke, one of the latest to announce his determination in seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election, officially entered the crowded field on March 14, 2019 without mercy. It wasn’t long before recycled articles from his historic slim loss to out-seat Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz in the 2018 Texas midterm election began to resurface.

While the ambiguous recovered stories are new to many, many Texans have a resume with two years of “Beto defamation debunking” experience under their lone star belt.

Among the endless spun headlines about the former Congressman, is a false fueled claim that he often voted against the Democratic Party. In what seems to be a popular source of this misleading narrative, is one piece published by VOX.com in December of 2018.

Source: Twitter.com, Alyssa Milano

The article, presumably published at a time when O’Rourke’s popularity showed no signs of slowing down, but instead continued to gain national recognition — through his infectious display of hope and love for our country and what She stands for — despite that narrow loss. At a time when celebrity figures and hopeful supporters revived a sense of optimism for our country through his loss; a loss that could very well spell victory for the Democratic Party in 2020.

The misleading headline screams,“Beto O’Rourke’s voting record is more conservative than the average Democrat’s”, with its bold headline, but whispers, “It’s about what you’d expect from someone running a statewide campaign in Texas.”, in a small transparent grey text that follows once you’ve committed to the article.

Depending on the presented source, the headline may display, “Beto O’Rourke’s voting record is more conservative than a…”, as it does when posted in the comment section of a Facebook.com post. It’s nothing more than a fairy tail in this form of presentation .

Source: VOX.COM, via Facebook.com, viewed 20 Mar 2019

The headline indisputably disguises what could be former Congressman O’Rourke’s best asset as a presidential candidate — the thing our country seems to be crying for — the ability to unite.

The endless distorted, unsupported and petty claims — that seem to primarily target O’Rourke — are truly a disservice to the American people at its core. They spread toxicity to the misinformed voter; a new voter, an older voter, an uneducated voter, an indecisive voter, a voter with little to no access to data driven material and even the voter with just the slightest of interest in the former Congressman. It’s likely those individuals read the article and ran — fast.

The article mentioned among others, also fail to support the Former Congressman without sharing his assignment on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee and the Armed Services Committee. They ignore the fact that the former Congressman is a stern supporter and advocate for US Veterans; that related bills are more often than less, labeled as Conservative.

A simple example is the The HR VA Accountability First Act of 2017. The bill passed the house on March 16, 2017 with 237 yeas. Only 10 of those 237 yeas were supporting Democrats, which included Former Congressman O’Rourke.

(Source: https://bit.ly/2JMMuQC)

If the public knew what the “conservative votes” pertain to specifically, they’d be more inclined to defend the former Congressman. Caring for our Veterans’ has always been an American issue, not a bipartisan one.

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com

To continue, it would be helpful to inform readers:

At least six of the presidential candidates have no voting record on file to compare, as they never served as a U.S Representative or as a U.S Senator.

least six of the presidential candidates have no voting record on file to compare, as they never served as a U.S Representative or as a U.S Senator. Members of the U.S House and Senate aren’t necessarily voting on the same bills. I.e., in O’Rourke’s 6 years he voted on twenty-nine oil and gas related bills. In that same period of time, Senator Bernie Sanders voted on — one. [Both voted 100% Democrat on these issues — just saying].

To note the specific period of which their claim reflects (same year, term, bills, etc.).

To identify the difference in legislative roles; I.e., a three term US Representative will likely have voted for three times the number or more of related bills than a US Senator. Bills start in the US House before their introduction to the Senate, if passed.

Nonetheless, the lack of data used conveys the false narrative.

Even with those “Conservative”, including pro-Veteran votes on record, former Congressman O’Rourke still falls within “Liberal” range of fellow 2020 Presidential contenders. Chart Source: voteview.com

Facts

I certainly wish I had the time and resources to compare former Congressman O’Rourke’s voting record to that of every US Representative and US Senator during his six years in office, but — I don’t. Instead, I’ve used a source that compares Mr. O’Rourke’s voting record to that of the big man; the “as far right as I can go” guy who currently sits in the Oval office.

FiveThirtyEight.com is a fact forth website that tracks and compares the voting record of our members in congress to those of President Trump.

(Source: https://53eig.ht/2Y5QGOt)

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, former Congressman Beto O’ Rourke has a Trump score of 30.1%. A Trump score is a percentage used to represent the number of times the former Congressman and President Trump agreed on the same bill; O’Rourke being part of its pass in the US House to Trump expressing support of the bill or signing the bill.

O’ Rourke’s score of 30.1% falls 19.9% short of agreeing with President Trump at even half, or 50% of the time. Out of ninety-six bills, they mutually agreed on twenty-seven.