Climate change is perhaps the greatest challenge facing human civilization, and everyone needs to chip in to solve it, Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke told a Reno audience on Thursday.

“We know that this will become worse, and much worse for our kids and grandkids, if we don’t take action,” O’Rourke warned the college-age crowd of hundreds gathered at Bibo Coffee, near the campus of the University of Nevada, Reno. “None of this can be met by half-measures, or even half the country."

O’Rourke, true to campaign custom, drove himself to the event and belted out his stump speech from high atop one of the coffee shop’s dining tables. He donned a UNR Wolf Pack hat borrowed from a campaign staffer while delivering the campus friendly address that focused on climate change, immigration and the ever-escalating drama surrounding President Donald Trump.

Congress, he said, has grounds to impeach Trump, especially after last week’s release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s hotly anticipated report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The line won a warm reception, though it paled in comparison to the roar that welcomed his pledges to wipe out student loan debt and end the war on drugs.

The 46-year-old ex-El Paso city councilman enjoyed a similarly rowdy reception a few hours later in Carson City, where a somewhat older crowd praised his proposals to end gerrymandering, enact a $15 federal minimum wage and offer paid family leave to all Americans.

Both speeches leaned heavily on establishing a political “common ground” — a theme that echoed the hopeful, unifying message brought here last week by fellow Democratic contender and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

O’Rourke, like Booker, preferred to talk about climate change solutions without directly mentioning the divisive Green New Deal. He later told reporters that he supports the goals described in the ambitious, eco-friendly public works program authored by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

Unlike Booker and other Democratic front-runners, O’Rourke doesn’t support Medicare for All. The candidate’s stump speech repeatedly touts the need for “high quality, universal health care for all.” But he told the Reno Gazette Journal that plan should center around providing a public health insurance option, as opposed to the immediate elimination of private health insurance plans.

“I think the surest, quickest path to that common goal of universal care would be one where everyone who doesn’t have insurance today is enrolled in Medicare,” he said after his roughly hour-long event in Carson City. “Those who are insufficiently insured can elect, can choose, to be in Medicare.

“Small business owners who choose to remain in (private) insurance, in that path, would be able to do that.”

O’Rourke, who first rose to national prominence during a high-profile 2018 bid to unseat Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, welcomed former Vice President Joe Biden’s arrival in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Biden, he said, brings “extraordinary experience” to the contest. O’Rourke didn’t directly answer questions about Biden’s subsequent apology to Anita Hill, the law professor who accused U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment. Hill and many others have expressed dissatisfaction with Biden’s handling of those allegations during Thomas’ confirmation hearing in 1991.

Biden formally announced his bid on Thursday morning, joining O’Rourke and 18 other candidates vying to unseat Trump in 2020.

O’Rourke is among the youngest of those contenders, a fact that didn’t seem lost on the dozens of college Democrats who spent a half-hour waiting for a post-event selfie with the tall, tan Texan in Reno.

Still, O'Rourke's not sure if his youth will give him an edge on the campaign trail.

“It doesn’t come up a lot,” he said with a smile. “I think other folks will have to answer for me. There are folks who are older and folks who are younger. With so many amazing candidates running right now, I’m just lucky to count myself as one of them.

“I’m going to do my best to listen to everybody and learn. We’ll show up with the courage of our convictions and let the voters of Nevada decide.”

More: U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at Wooster High School

More:Presidential Candidate Cory Booker Visits Reno

O’Rourke landed third in a March poll of 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls in Nevada. He spent two days campaigning in and around Las Vegas in March.

He counts as the fourth presidential front-runner to visit Northern Nevada in April. U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris have each stumped in the region over the past three weeks.

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., is scheduled to revisit Las Vegas this weekend, marking her second stop in the Silver State ahead of February’s critical early caucus.

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James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.