“If we play nicely by the set rules, we’re going to end up with the same results,” Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke said Monday. | Stephen Lam/Getty Images 2020 Elections O'Rourke: Time to play rough with Republicans

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Beto O’Rourke began his town hall on Monday with a familiar call for bipartisanship. He learned as a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Congress, he said, to “find the common ground.”

But within the hour, the Texas Democrat's tone had changed — prompted by an attendee who had become frustrated with another Democrat for whom she had high hopes: Barack Obama.


With the intransigence in Washington, the woman asked, how could O’Rourke get anything done?

“There was no person more inspiring in public life, in my life, than Barack Obama,” O’Rourke responded, saying he was prepared to “walk through walls” for him in 2008.

“One of the frustrations, though, during those eight years, is so many people who were willing to walk through walls — and some of you did walk through walls here in Iowa — no longer felt connected to the mission, to the policies and to the goals during that administration,” O’Rourke said.

If elected, O’Rourke suggested he would go to conservative districts to pressure their Republican lawmakers on policies related to health care, college affordability and the economy.

“Let’s go past [Rep.] Steve King directly to his constituents, make the case to them and involve them in the work to make sure that we get this done,” he said, invoking an Iowa Republican loathed by Democrats.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “effectively stripped Barack Obama of the last year of his presidency when it came to nominating [a justice] to the Supreme Court,” O’Rourke said.

“If we play nicely by the set rules, we’re going to end up with the same results,” he added. “If we go around some of these intransigent members of Congress, if we build a majority in both houses of Congress to make sure that we deliver this legislation … then we’ll be able to achieve this ambitious agenda.”