A few days ago, former congressman and possible presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke spent a day in Tucumcari, New Mexico, to meet with local folks and research a bit of his family history there.
O’Rourke, a Democrat, rose to national prominence last year after he lost an unexpectedly close 3-point U.S. Senate race in deeply Republican Texas against incumbent Ted Cruz.
Whether O’Rourke’s trip down U.S. 54 from his home base of El Paso, Texas, is a precursor to his running for higher office is anyone’s guess. Maybe O’Rourke himself doesn’t know.
O’Rourke posted his thoughts in a road diary on Medium, including the largely Tucumcari entry. He wrote this about staying overnight in town:
I stayed at the Motel Safari, one of these classic Route 66 motels. Mid-century everything. I talked to the owner for a bit. He moved from Tennessee and away from corporate life. Starting over. Giving himself to this hotel that he bought a couple years back. Hasn’t taken a break in more than a year, but is going to close down for the month of February, spend some time back in Tennessee. Take a break, come back stronger.
Larry Smith, owner of Motel Safari, posted this photo of him and O’Rourke on Facebook after his stay.
Smith said he’d discourage political commentary about his overnight guest. The comments largely praised O’Rourke for staying at a mom-and-pop motel on Route 66 instead of a chain establishment.
Politico followed up with Smith:
Larry Smith, owner of the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, said that when he asked O’Rourke why he chose to stay at his motel, O’Rourke said “he was attracted to the fact it was a mom and pop business.”
Then, noting the winter rate of $59.95, Smith added, “He said he’s on a budget because, how did he put it, he’s in between jobs.”
According to O’Rourke, he jogged down Route 66 and side streets near the Tucumcari Historical Museum, ate blackberry cobbler at Del’s Restaurant, chatted with students in the wind-energy program at Mesalands Community College, and observed older men talking among themselves about politics at the Tucumcari Public Library.
One of the most interesting parts is O’Rourke seems to have a family connection to Tucumcari.
Trying to learn more about the town that my great-grandparents lived in more than a hundred years ago. James O’Rourke, son of Irish immigrants, and Anna Lloyd who immigrated to the U.S. from Wales. According to the 1910 census they lived at 1710 Second Street. […] I drove to 1710 Second Street. It’s now a First National Bank parking lot. Went to the Tucumcari library to see if I could find anything about James and Anna and what was going on in 1910.
He didn’t. The address O’Rourke wrote was a typo. According to the census page he cited, they lived at 710 Second Street. There now is no such address, but 710 S. Second St. indeed is part of a parking lot and drive-up facility for an FNB New Mexico bank.
A low-slung stucco house also stands at 710 N. Second St., part of Highway 104, but whether that dates to the early O’Rourke clan seems unlikely.
O’Rourke also spent time in the U.S. 54 towns of Goodwell, Oklahoma; Liberal, Kansas; and Bucklin, Kansas, where his great-grandparents married in 1906 before moving to Tucumcari. He also ventured off the road a bit to Ulysses, Kansas, a place where he’d stopped decades ago on a cross-country trip from New York City to El Paso.
Naturally, O’Rourke’s trip has attracted a lot of attention and analyses from CNN to Fox News to The Hill.
I suspect O’Rourke is in the process of deciding whether to run for president and is using his journey to “clear my head” and “get out of the loops I’m stuck in,” as he put it. Meeting ordinary folks along the way might help him clarify things and give him campaign fodder. If I were a betting man, I’d lay money on him running.
(Image of Motel Safari and Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico, via Beto O’Rourke’s blog)
I don’t know about anyone else, but whenever I’ve been “between jobs” (it’s unfortunate that “politician” is even considered a “job,” but whatever), I don’t just drive around aimlessly – I start looking for a new job, preferably near where I reside. In fact, I would’ve been more impressed with the owner of Hotel Safari if immediately after the moment “Beto” gave him that canned line he keeps using about being “between jobs” he had reached under his desk and handed him an application!
Route 66 News is not the place for politicans to campaign.
We’ve reported on Route 66 appearances by Donald Trump in Springfield, Missouri, Barack Obama in Lebanon, Missouri, and John McCain at Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in St. Louis. All are news; they’re not campaign slogans.