“The media bashed this guy because he didn’t do their bullshit dog and pony show,” Boyd Brown, a former South Carolina Democratic state lawmaker who backed O’Rourke early told The Daily Beast. “Morning Joe, they want you to do their circuit. They repeat the stuff they hear at their cocktail parties in Greenwich and the Hamptons over the weekend. And they come back and think everybody’s going to agree to all the inside-the-beltway bullshit that they listen to day in and day out.”

Not everyone shares Brown’s sense of injustice or colorful language. Publicly, O’Rourke’s team insists that the plan that they put in place is going as envisioned. The candidate may be trailing in the polls, but as with many candidates in his current position so early in the process no one is putting too much stock in them. Aides have pointed to various surveys showing that O’Rourke is still up for consideration among many voters who have not made many final determinations yet.

O’Rourke himself believes that his policy rollouts are resonating with the public, including detailed plans that have addressed climate change, immigration, voting rights, reproductive justice and most recently the LGBTQ+ community. The last of those was unveiled in conjunction with a 2-mile Pride Run O’Rourke did with supporters—and this reporter—along Manhattan’s Hudson River Greenway, ending at an LGBTQ memorial site. The event also took place on the three-year anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting.