STATE COLLEGE, Pa. _ Beto O'Rourke railed against economic inequality, climate change, the spread of opioids and other problems that he said are plaguing the country in a rapid-fire speech at Penn State University on Tuesday morning, drawing applause from a heavily liberal crowd as he brought the burgeoning Democratic primary to Central Pennsylvania.
The visit was one of the first, if not the first, public event that any of the Democratic candidates have held in Pennsylvania this election cycle and came at the end of a swing that began in Iowa and then took O'Rourke through the critical swing states of Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan.
O'Rourke, wearing a white button-down shirt and white Penn State ballcap, tied his visit to a college campus in Centre County, a left-leaning but competitive county, as part of his pledge to campaign in all corners of the country and to "show up everywhere."
He likened his visit to his Texas Senate campaign, in which he said he stopped in all 254 of the state's counties, arguing that he would take the same approach in a presidential run as Democrats try to win back the White House and key states that turned to President Donald Trump in 2016.
"Regardless of who they voted for, and regardless of who they were going to vote for in the race that we were running, they were deserving of our respect," O'Rourke said, telling the audience that if they join his campaign, volunteers "can be part of the largest grassroots effort this country has ever seen. We will put you to work."
Before a friendly audience of students and older Democratic voters, O'Rourke, dropping in occasional Spanish and speaking with a propulsive cadence, drew some his most vigorous applause for his promise to take on climate change _ the top issue among many young people.
If the planet rises by one more degree Celsius, O'Rourke warned, "we are screwed, and that is the term the scientists use."
He stopped short of fully endorsing the Green New Deal championed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and a vocal segment of liberals.
"The only way to match that threat and that opportunity is with bold action," he said, praising aspects of the proposal, including its investment in solar and wind energy jobs.
Mostly, though, O'Rourke laid out challenges and called for a more unified vision of the country, rather than emphasizing any central policy _ a factor several people in the audience raised as a concern, despite praising his energy.
"Our democracy right now is as broken as it has been in our lifetime," O'Rourke said. "It is being attacked from without, it is being attacked from within." He pointed specifically to a recent college cheating scandal as an example of drastic inequality affecting opportunity.
In a question-and-answer session one attendant asked, "When are we going to get an actual policy from you instead of platitudes and nice stories?" O'Rourke pointed to support for legalizing marijuana and a Medicare buy-in program proposed by fellow Democrats in Congress.
In visiting Penn State, O'Rourke seemed to be pairing his youthful appeal with his vows to reach beyond the Democratic base. Centre County, home to Penn State, went to Democrat Hillary Clinton by just 2.4 percentage points in 2016, though it voted much more heavily for Democrats for governor and U.S. Senate last year.
"I think he wants to make an outreach to all voters," said Greg Stewart, chairman of the Centre County Democratic Party.
"We have a good mix here of both moderate to conservative Democrats to liberal Democrats," along with Republicans. "It's kind of a microcosm of the state. That may be why he's here."
Stewart, who was an early Barack Obama supporter when the then-upstart senator launched his presidential campaign in 2007, said O'Roukre is "appealing to some of the people who also supported Obama in '08," adding that some of his friends from that campaign are "excited about a young potential candidate."
Stewart, however, said he is not committed to any candidate yet.
