Huffman gives housemate Beto a fighting chance in Senate bid

Like housemates everywhere, Democratic Congressmen Jared Huffman of San Rafael and Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, Texas have their differences.

When they set aside politics and pick up their guitars, O’Rourke, who played in a punk rock band in college, hits the strings hard. Huffman, eight years older, finds it “crazy noise to my ears.”

He introduced O’Rourke to James Taylor’s music but believes his colleague considers the stuff baby boomers enjoy as “sappy and uninteresting.”

The two men, first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012, are, however, in perfect political harmony.

Huffman, who has a lock on re-election in his Democrat-dominated North Coast district, is lending campaign and financial support to other Democrats, including O’Rourke, whose high-risk challenge to Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz is one of the hottest races of 2018.

Huffman’s help can only go so far: With the election looming, he won’t get anywhere near the Lone Star State. The last thing O’Rourke needs, he said, is “a liberal Californian parachuting in to tell people how to vote.”

But as his campaign was catching fire in the spring, O’Rourke swung through the North Bay, including a breakfast stop with supporters at a hip Santa Rosa restaurant.

O’Rourke, 46, who campaigns on his Latino nickname Beto - pronounced Bet-Oh - is now a national figure, a charismatic Democratic star from the conservative heartland with presidential potential, some say, and an earnest, boyish face reminiscent of Bobby Kennedy.

The son of an El Paso County judge, O’Rourke was raised in the city on the Rio Grande at the far west corner of Texas. The nationwide buzz, plus the megamillions in campaign cash he has amassed, have elevated him to a Kennedy-like plateau, even though he continues to trail Cruz in the polls by mid- to high single digits.

“He’s exciting people everywhere he goes,” Huffman said. “Smart as can be” with a strong grasp of public policy, he added. “People come away dazzled.”

O’Rourke’s office did not respond to an interview request for this story.

The Capitol Hill roommates haven’t been complete strangers on the campaign trail.

Huffman arranged two North Bay fundraising events for O’Rourke before he was a household name.

The lanky Texan, who campaigns in slacks and a shirt with the sleeves rolled up, was the star attraction at a private breakfast at the Spinster Sisters on May 29, attended by 55 guests.

Liza Hinman, chef and co-owner of the Santa Rosa restaurant, said she was happy to host the event for a politician she admires.

“I think he was very engaging,” she said. “His message is positive, all-encompassing. Something I want to live my life by.”

Hinman and Huffman said they didn’t know much money the event raised.

Santa Rosa Mayor Chris Coursey was on hand for the fundraiser, which was scheduled without any public notice.

“He resonates with people. He seems very genuine,” Coursey, a Democrat, said of Rourke. “I think he is a contender.”

Another springtime fundraiser organized by Huffman in Marin County reaped $30,000 for his housemate’s campaign.

O’Rourke, who hails from a family of Irish ancestry and speaks fluent Spanish, earned a degree in English literature at Columbia in 1995, returned home three years later and started a small technology business. He served two terms on the El Paso City Council before defeating an eight-term Democratic incumbent, Silvestre Reyes, for the House seat in a Democratic, Latino-majority congressional district in 2012.

His re-election to a fourth term in the House was a sure thing until he announced his campaign against Cruz in March 2017.

Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight gives O’Rourke a 21 percent chance of winning.

But around the liberal North Coast, the Texan’s challenge to a Republican Party stalwart has visible support.

Along Highway 128 coming out of Anderson Valley, Huffman saw a row of “Beto” signs, and people from Humboldt County to Bolinas are wearing Beto t-shirts and buttons at political events, he said.

The pundit class also is impressed.

“The salon talk in Washington, D.C. is all about Beto because of all the money he’s raised,” David McCuan, a Sonoma State University political scientist, said recently after visiting the nation’s capital.

O’Rourke stunned the political universe by announcing last week he had raised more than $38 million in three months (July through September), a record amount for a Senate candidate in a single quarter. The money came from more than 800,000 donors, about half of them in Texas, he said, having pledged not to take money from political action committees.

The windfall left O’Rourke with nearly $62 million in campaign contributions, swamping Cruz’s $35 million total through Sept. 30, according to federal records.

But the odds are still against O’Rourke, despite a 37 percent favorability rating - and 24 percent no opinion, compared with Cruz’s 39 percent approval rating and a whopping 33 percent “disapprove strongly” in the Texas Politics Project’s latest report.

McCuan said he expects Cruz to win by less than 5 points.

O’Rourke, however, could be the “winner by losing,” he said, potentially heading to Iowa and New Hampshire in the winter and emerging as “the darling of 2020.”

Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, said O’Rourke’s chances rest with Latinos, who make up a significant bloc of registered voters but have so far failed to make an impact at the polls.

Turnout by Latino registered voters in Texas midterm elections has averaged 45 percent since 1994, well below the levels for white and black voters, according to the William C. Velasquez Institute, a nonprofit research organization based in El Paso.

“Beto comes off as a likeable fellow, willing to roll up his sleeves and work hard for the people,” Rottinghaus said. “He makes voters feel like he cares.”

But if he can’t mobilize the Latino vote, “he has little chance of winning,” he said.

Latinos have boosted Democratic voter rolls, but McCuan noted their stance on some issues - as a bloc they tend to be pro-life and pro-business - can favor Republicans.

“In Texas, we’ve been waiting for the Latino swing vote since 2004” and it hasn’t happened, he said.

Texas last elected a Democratic senator 25 years ago, and has filled every statewide office with Republicans since 1998.

“The energy in the Lone Star State is palpable,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez told The Washington Post after O’Rourke announced his $38 million fundraising haul.

At a “Rally with Willie and Beto” in Austin on Sept. 29, the candidate spoke to a crowd of 60,000 touting universal health care, marijuana legalization and women’s reproductive rights. Willie Nelson, the famed country singer and son of Texas, wore a Beto hat and t-shirt and called on O’Rourke to help sing “On the Road Again.”

In Washington, O’Rourke, Huffman and Central Coast Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, share a brick rowhouse on Capitol Hill. All three lean left politically, although only Huffman belongs to the House Progressive Caucus.

Both Huffman and O’Rourke were star athletes in college: Huffman in volleyball at UC Santa Barbara; O’Rourke as an oarsman on Columbia’s crew team. Both are married with children: O’Rourke has 3, Huffman 2.

Life at the Capitol rowhouse mixes the demands of politicking on social media with everyday domestic woes.

O’Rourke was livestreaming a campaign video on Facebook in their kitchen on July 11 when Huffman arrived home unexpectedly. The conversation shifted from the controversial separation of immigrant families to the $9 burrito in Huffman’s hand and the foul smell under the stove. O’Rourke told his audience he suspected it was a dead animal.

“Thank you everyone for supporting my roommate,” Huffman said, then stepped out of sight to get a couple of glasses of California wine.

“The RFK of our time,” one viewer commented during the video, which had nearly 84,000 views.

Huffman said he discovered the next day the freezer had turned off while they were out of town and all the food went bad.

The San Rafael Democrat thinks his housemate - technically a tenant in the place Huffman owns - has a “viable chance” of beating Cruz, who ran for president in 2016.

“It would be one of the biggest upsets in recent political history and I believe good news for the country,” he said.