A closer-than-expected Senate race in 2018 has propelled the congressman to the top tier of 2020 candidates
BETO O’ROURKE has been soul-searching ever since his narrow defeat to Ted Cruz in 2018. He has published wistful video-diary entries from fog-covered Liberal, in Kansas, and Pueblo, in Colorado . The search finally ended with him gazing at the adoring lens of Annie Leibovitz’s camera. “Man, I’m just born to be in it,” he told Vanity Fair, “and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment.
Turnout in last year’s Senate race increased by more than 3.7m votes relative to the 2014 election, according to the Texas Secretary of State. More impressively, the 8.4m votes cast in last year’s contest rivalled turnout in the 2016 presidential election, a feat uncommon in mid-term elections. That cannot be entirely attributed to Mr O’Rourke: the Democrats’ blue wave carried them to success nationwide.
Still, it is not certain whether Mr O’Rourke’s over-performance in Texas would translate to the national stage. It could be that he did well because he is more moderate than the typical Democrat and because Texas voters are rather conservative.
Mr O’Rourke is left enough to stand a chance in his party’s primary. He voted with fellow Democrats 93% of the time when he served in Congress, which is slightly less than the average Democrat but nevertheless high. He holds notably liberal positions on border security and immigration: last month, he said he would “absolutely” tear down the border wall in his home city of El Paso, Texas if he were elected president.
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