Beto O'Rourke Starts White House Bid With El Paso Homecoming
(Bloomberg) -- Beto O’Rourke officially launches his 2020 presidential campaign on Saturday in El Paso, using the backdrop of his Texas home town on the Rio Grande River to declare he’s the best Democrat to take on President Donald Trump.
The former three-term congressman and a darling of left-leaning voters is expected to tick off his campaign priorities -- what his campaign terms a “unifying vision for bridging divides” -- in characteristically earnest style. Joined by wife Amy and their three children, he’ll then travel to events at Texas Southern University in Houston and at the state capitol in Austin.
O’Rourke’s charisma and relative youth grabbed national attention when he nearly defeated incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz in the 2018 midterms. He was the recipient along the way of publicity and campaign contributions from around the country.
The O’Rourke-Cruz contest was the most expensive Senate race ever, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The Democrat pulled to within 2.6 percentage points of Cruz after outspending his Republican opponent by $79 million to $46 million. Cruz won his first Senate race, in 2012, by 16 points over a former state lawmaker.
Symbolic Location
El Paso, separated by the Rio Grande from the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, has a leading role in Trump’s quest to extend a wall along the entire southern U.S. border.
“Today we started building the big beautiful wall right on the Rio Grande,” Trump said at a rally in El Paso in February, the first he held after a bruising government shutdown over border funding. At a competing event across town, O’Rourke declared that “We are not safe because of walls, but in spite of walls.”
After the close race against Cruz, the challenge for O’Rourke, 46, will be to maintain his popularity as other declared candidates gain national name recognition. He’ll also face pressure to develop a more detailed policy platform to prove that he can do more than rally crowds with inspirational but vague speeches.
Among the topics expected to be touched upon on Saturday are climate change, criminal justice reform, health care, immigration and the economy.
Born to Run
The Texas Democrat announced his candidacy in a March 14 video, nearly synchronized with the publication of a Vanity Fair cover story that detailed his own agonizing over whether he should enter the race, and a much-mocked assertion that “Man, I’m just born to be in it.”
As he officially ramps up his campaign, O’Rourke is polling in the top tier of a diverse set of nearly 20 Democrats hoping to challenge Trump in 2020.
O’Rourke -- his given name is Robert Francis O’Rourke -- has already sprinted through early primary and caucus states. He’s held town hall meetings in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
The candidate has drawn media attention for attracting large crowds and for the record-breaking $6.1 million he raised in the 24 hours after his announcement video. His campaign has shunned money from political action committees, and emphasized strong support from small online contributions.
Tapping into O’Rourke’s grassroots appeal, volunteers will host more than 1,000 parties in every U.S. state and territory to watch a live-stream of Saturday’s rally, which is expected to start around noon EDT, according to his campaign.
But as the early buzz over his candidacy recedes, O’Rourke is finding that, unlike his 2018 Senate bid, his Texas brand of progressive politics may not be far-left enough for a nationwide contest.
This time, he’s facing Democratic competitors angling to be seen as more progressive on health care, energy and the economy. For instance, O’Rourke says he supports universal health care coverage, but stops short of endorsing so-called Medicare for All, a proposal that may mean the end of the private health insurance system in the U.S.
O’Rourke’s free-wheeling speaking style, viewed as part of his appeal, has also caused some early problems. He’s apologized for joking at several events that his wife has been raising their kids “sometimes with my help.”
Some Democrats have also questioned why they should support someone who could be considered an example of white male privilege. Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who narrowly lost the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018, told MSNBC she believes race may be playing a role O’Rourke’s rising popularity after his failed Senate run.
Top Tier
Abrams questioned why she and former Democratic Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum haven’t received the same attention, though they also narrowly lost statewide races. Both are black, while O’Rourke is white.
The two other likely Democratic candidates polling higher than O’Rourke are also white men, according to a Quinnipiac University survey released Thursday, at a time when Democrats’ electoral success depends heavily on turnout from women and minority voters.
The poll showed O’Rourke at 12 percent among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, behind former Vice President Joe Biden at 29 percent and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders at 19 percent. California Senator Kamala Harris, a black woman, was the preferred candidate of 8 percent or respondents.
“Hungry for a candidate to take on President Donald Trump, Democrats and Democratic leaners put the three Bs -- Biden, Bernie and Beto -- at the top in a race where age, race and gender take a back seat to electability and shared views,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll, in releasing the survey.
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