diff --git a/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/dbapi/cursor.py b/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/dbapi/cursor.py
index c550287ecc4b..b582860c6045 100644
--- a/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/dbapi/cursor.py
+++ b/bigquery/google/cloud/bigquery/dbapi/cursor.py
@@ -153,8 +153,8 @@ def execute(self, operation, parameters=None, job_id=None):
         # Wait for the query to finish.
         try:
             self._query_job.result()
-        except google.cloud.exceptions.GoogleCloudError:
-            raise exceptions.DatabaseError(self._query_job.errors)
+        except google.cloud.exceptions.GoogleCloudError as exc:
+            raise exceptions.DatabaseError(exc)
 
         query_results = self._query_job._query_results
         self._set_rowcount(query_results)