Beto tells a coffee shop crowd that he just talked with his wife, Amy. “She is raising, sometimes with my help,” their three kids. Then says he’s running for president for his kids, and theirs.

— Matt Viser (@mviser) March 14, 2019

While campaigning at a coffee shop, O’Rourke tells a crowd of his wife, Amy, “She is raising, sometimes with my help,” their three kids. The comment, which he viewed as a joke, elicits criticism by those noting that it was both reflective of O’Rourke’s gender privilege and inconsiderate of the causes and effects of deep gender inequities in caregiving. In response, O’Rourke quickly apologizes by saying, “My ham-handed attempt to try to highlight the fact that Amy has the lion’s share of the burden in our family – that she actually works but is the primary parent in our family, especially when I served in Congress, especially when I was on the campaign trail – should have also been a moment for me to acknowledge that that is far too often the case, not just in politics, but just in life in general. He added, “I will be much more thoughtful in the ways that I talk about my marriage.” The criticism of O’Rourke’s initial comment, as well as his response, suggests some progress in pushing presidential candidates to reflect on underlying gender inequities that have made it easier for men to run for office across levels at any age and regardless of their parental status. Those inequities were still evident, however, in the fact that multiple men – and only one woman – who ran for president in 2020 had school-aged children. Even more, U.S. Representatives Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Seth Moulton (D-MA) launched their candidacies with infant children under age one.