The Associated Press faced backlash on social media Monday after writing that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke spoke “in his native Spanish” at a rally in El Paso, Texas.

Although O’Rourke speaks Spanish, he a fourth-generation Irish-American whose full name is Robert Francis O’Rouke.

The AP report originally wrote: "O'Rourke also spoke at length in his native Spanish, eliciting loud and sustained cheers.”


After the criticism, AP appended a correction to its story, reading: “In a story March 31 about a Beto O’Rourke campaign rally, The Associated Press reported erroneously that O’Rourke spoke to a rally in his native Spanish. O’Rourke is not a native Spanish speaker.”

O’Rourke, 46, announced he was running for president in March. He has been a rising star in the Democratic Party since his highly-publicized bid to unseat incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, during the 2018 midterm elections. He ended up losing by a closer-than-expected margin but has since used the publicity from the election to catapult him onto the national scene.