AUSTIN — Texas Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke apologized Monday for once writing a critical review of a Broadway musical in his college newspaper that said the actresses’ “only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks.”
“I am ashamed of what I wrote and I apologize,” O’Rourke, a Democrat, said in a statement of his 1991 review. “There is no excuse for making disrespectful and demeaning comments about women.”
In the review, which was first reported by Politico, O’Rourke — then 19– wrote for the Columbia Daily Spectator that the Broadway musical “The Will Rogers Follies” is “one of the most glaring examples of sickening excesses and moral degradations in our culture.”
“One thing that should be taken into consideration, however, is that I was the youngest person in the crowd by about 60 years,” O’Rourke continued. “Though I found it revolting, most people from that long-ago, faraway generation really enjoyed the show, and were very pleased with the performances.”
“Keith Carradine in the lead role is surrounded by perma-smile actresses whose only qualifications seem to be their phenomenally large breasts and tight buttocks,” the review said.
O’Rourke, who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2013, is in the midst of a high profile Senate race against incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. A September 2018 Quinnipiac poll shows Cruz holds a majority of likely voters — 54% — over 45% for O’Rourke.
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