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Beto O'Rourke Might Be Facing Jail Time for This Political Stunt

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  August 12, 2025 2:15 PM

Remember Robert Francis O'Rourke? He's that Irishman in Texas who adopted the name "Beto" to appeal to Hispanic voters. He's also known for losing elections. But now, he might be losing his freedom.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed a motion to have failed presidential and Senate candidate Robert “Beto” O’Rourke arrested for raising funds for Democratic state lawmakers who fled the state to delay a redistricting vote.

In a post on X, Paxton said he is “taking action to hold Robert Francis O’Rourke in contempt for violating a court order and scamming Texans.”

“Beto is about to find out that running your mouth and ignoring the rule of law has consequences in Texas,” the attorney general continued. “It's time to lock him up.”

Paxton’s office issued a press release alleging that O’Rourke “blatantly violated a Tarrant County temporary restraining order by continuing to fundraise and pay for the personal expenses of runaway Democrat legislators.”

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The fake Hispanic Irishman has been a vocal critic of Texas Republicans’ plans to add more Congressional seats for the GOP through redistricting.

“Less than 24 hours after the temporary restraining order was signed, Robert Francis told a crowd of hundreds in Fort Worth that he would continue fundraising in violation of the restraining order because 'there are no refs in this game, f*** the rules,'” the press release said. “Robert Francis is wrong on both counts. There is a referee—the Honorable Megan Fahey—and there are rules—namely, that a person violating a temporary restraining order can be fined up to $500 and jailed for up to six months.”

The attorney general filed an emergency motion for contempt against O’Rourke and his organization, Powered by People, for violating a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) issued on August 8, 2025. The order prohibited them from “raising funds for non-political purposes…through the ActBlue platform” to cover the personal expenses of erstwhile Texas Democrats hiding out in places like Illinois and New York.

The motion lays out several incidents in which O’Rourke violated the TRO by trying to raise funds on social media. During a Fort Worth rally that was livestreamed on YouTube, a banner read, “Text FIGHT to 20377.” He did the same during a town hall event in Abilene on Sunday.

Contempt penalties can include fines up to $500 per violation and up to six months of jail time. Of course, it’s not clear whether O’Rourke will actually face any punishment for his shenanigans. But either way, he has at least gotten a little bit of attention after remaining irrelevant over the past four years.