Beto O'Rourke, Kirsten Gillibrand make campaign stops in metro Detroit

(FOX 2) - As more candidates join the race for president, many are making stops in Michigan. 

Beto O'Rourke is the first to make a stop. He was at the Hometown Heroes Cafe in Center Line and the carpenter's Training Center in Ferndale Monday morning.

It was standing room only inside the cafe as dozens showed up to hear him speak. Universal healthcare, global warming and tougher gun laws were a few of the topics the former congressman from Texas touched on. 

"I'll allow the voters in Michigan, the people of this country, to decide the outcome - and I'm good with it, whoever it is. The summer of 2020 we will all get behind him or her and make them as successful as possible not just in defeating President Trump but in being ready to go Day One of January 2021," he told us after making his remarks. 

O'Rourke, of course, has to secure the Democratic presidential nomination before he can worry about the general election. But then he's also already said he'd prefer to pick a woman as his running mate, should he make it that far. O'Rourke said Sunday at a campaign stop in Wisconsin that it was presumptuous to commit to that so early, but that doing so would make a "tremendous amount of sense" given the number of qualified women candidates.

Many remember the Texan for declaring "I'm so f--king proud of you guys" on national television during his concession speech in November, after narrowly losing his Senate race to incumbent Republican Ted Cruz. O'Rourke said Sunday that he'll not use profanities any more, after being asked by a voter if he was going to "clean up his act," especially in front of children.

New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand is another to be making a stop here in the metro area. She'll be at Leon and Lulu in Clawson for a Fems for Dems event at 5:30 p.m. Monday with governor Gretchen Whitmer. That even is also open to the public. 

Gillibrand formally joined the 2020 White House race on Sunday and previewed the hard line she will take against President Donald Trump by announcing a rally outside one of his signature Manhattan properties.

The New York senator had spent more than a month traveling around the country to gauge support for a run. Gillibrand's announcement that she was joining the dozen-plus Democratic candidates seeking the White House came in a nearly three-minute video released early Sunday, when she says the national anthem poses this question: "Will brave win?"

She said her debut speech as a candidate will come this coming Sunday in front of the Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York.

Outside of the metro area, president Donald Trump will be at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids next week as well.

The Associated Press contributed to this report