How El Paso shaped Beto O'Rourke from prep schooler to punk rocker to presidential candidate

[TexasTowelie]

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke was in Nevada preparing for another campaign event when he heard that a gunman had opened fire inside a Walmart in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.

Twenty-two people were killed on Aug. 3 at the hands of a mass shooter who was inspired by racism and anti-immigrant hatred.

That was the moment, O'Rourke said, that everything changed for him.

“[The shooting] has changed me as a person,” O’Rourke, 46, told “Nightline.” “To have somebody come into this community and kill 22 people in an act of hatred and terror and violence, to know that that was inspired, at least in part, by the president. The killer using much of the same language the president uses.”

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/el-paso-shaped-beto-orourke-prep-schooler-punk/story?id=65104925