Tuesday November 27, 2018
By: Michael Scherer
Beto O'Rourke speaks to voters outside a polling station in El Paso on Nov. 6. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg News)
US Congressman Beto O'Rourke, who built a national following and a deep fundraising base during his unsuccessful bid for the Senate, would not rule out a run for the presidency.
He told constituents at an El Paso town hall that he and his wife Amy were considering their next steps.
"Amy and I made a decision not to rule anything out," he told reporters afterward, admitting that his position is different from the one he took on 2020 during the campaign.
O'Rourke, 46, a three-term congressman from Texas, would enter the race with less elected experience than many of his rivals but a proven ability to excite Democratic voters in a political era dominated by President Donald Trump.
In a crowded field that could number more than 20 candidates, charisma is likely to be key to attracting attention of early voters and the small-dollar fundraising that most candidates will need to survive the early stages of the primaries.
With just weeks remaining in his congressional job, O'Rourke had already made it clear that he intends to remain a part of the national conversation, penning occasional online essays, including a piece yesterday critiquing Trump's treatment of asylum seekers on the southern border.
Unlike other Democratic House members who have declared or are inching towards a presidential run, a list that includes Eric Swalwell of California, Tim Ryan of Ohio and John Delaney of Maryland, an O'Rouke bid in 2020 would be premised less on his service in Washington than his failed Texas Senate campaign.
In this year's result, O'Rourke came up 2.6 percentage points behind Republican Senator Ted Cruz. He received more than four million votes, about 250,000 more than Hillary Clinton got in 2016, when she lost the state by nine points to Trump.
Many in the crowd of about 120 came to today's town hall, billed as a congressional event, because of O'Rourke's presidential potential.
"We want to see the next step because we want to be a part of it," said Martha Morales of El Paso, who had given money and put out signs for the Senate campaign. "We want him to be president."