But as recently as May 2017, O’Rourke broke with the majority of his Democratic House colleagues to vote for a bill that expanded the federal “list of statutory aggravating factors in death penalty determinations” to include the murder or “targeting” of a law enforcement officer, firefighter or other first responder.

In effect, the bill, called The Thin Blue Line Act, proposed making it easier to execute a defendant if they attacked law enforcement. The legislation is one of a series of bills Republicans have introduced as a political indictment of the Black Lives Matter movement, which has sought to end unjustified police killings of black people.

The measure passed the House with 48 Democratic votes. Four Republicans voted against it.