O’Rourke also said that Democrats talked about saving democracy but it was a concept lost on many Americans who felt disenfranchised, citing the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. the Federal Elections Commission, which prohibited limits on independent expenditures by corporations and individuals.
“Is this a democracy where one person named Elon Musk can spend $300 million to purchase the outcome of a presidential election?” he said. “Is this a democracy where political action committees can pour millions of dollars into state house, state senate, U.S. Congressional, U.S. Senate races to purchase the outcomes — the policies that those members of Congress pursue, the future that we build or deny to one another? It sure doesn’t feel like a democracy to me.”
Where Democrats went wrong in wooing young voters
O’Rourke’s visit to the city coincided with the 2025 national convention of the Young Democrats of America held in Philadelphia last week.
At the town hall, University of Pittsburgh student Andrew Wise, who serves as president of the school’s College Democrats, asked how more youth can be motivated to support Democrats.
Although young voters in Pennsylvania and around the country leaned toward Harris in the 2024 election, a greater percentage voted for Trump and Republicans compared to 2020. Citing a recent Yale Youth Poll, Wise noted that voters ages 18 through 21 favor Republicans by almost 12 points.
O’Rouke said that Democrats didn’t do enough to court the youth vote in 2024 and added that some Democrats are now going on Joe Rogan and “calling color commentary at basketball games,” and said that was “great.” He added that Democrats need to build more direct lines of communication with youth voters.
“I think the answer, and this may be too obvious, is why don’t we follow young leaders like you who are the age of the people that we’re trying to reach,” he told Wise. “You are closest to the people that we are trying to turn out right now. And so part of the reason I asked if I could come to the Young Democrats of America Convention and speak last night and be there for a town hall today, I want to listen and learn about what you’re working on, what you’re doing.”
After the event, Wise said that he appreciated O’Rourke’s comments, and that it conveyed a strong “populist message that resonates with the average American, the type of American that we lost in the past.”
Wise agreed that Democrats should have done more to talk to younger voters like himself, which Trump had done effectively.
“He was on podcasts, podcasts that I listened to personally as a younger white guy,” Wise said. “He got out there and he talked to people and he didn’t say, ‘Oh, this isn’t the traditional media ecosystem.’ We can go out and talk to people on sports podcasts, meet people where they are, and where people are is on their stereo systems in their AirPods every day while they’re getting work done, while they’re going to work. And that’s how you reach people, not going on late night TV, not going on CNN. That stuff doesn’t work anymore.”
He added that Mamdani showed how effective that can be. Mamdani is credited with using social media to fuel his successful primary run.
“Some of us are calling it the new Tea Party movement, but really all I think it is is progressives coming together and uniting as a united front, which Beto talks about,” he said.
