3/14/19
Beto O’Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives. His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump’s. With Mr. O’Rourke’s entry, the primary field appears close to settled more than 10 months before the Iowa caucuses; former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the only holdout among the expected major candidates, seems poised to join the race next month. Early polls have shown Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders on top. Mr. O’Rourke, three decades their junior, hopes to supply an unsubtle contrast, particularly given Mr. Sanders’s success with the kinds of young voters who flocked to Mr. O’Rourke in Texas.
And while Mr. O’Rourke should have little trouble pulling in enough money to get a presidential campaign off the ground, it is not clear precisely how he will fare in fund-raising in such a large field of Democrats, without a binary contest against Mr. Cruz, whom liberals love to loathe. In the months since his defeat, Mr. O’Rourke himself seemed to be casting about for answers, discussing a possible run with advisers but appearing genuinely conflicted. His goal, people close to him say, is to build a presidential campaign consistent with the spirit of his Senate run, when he gleefully swore off consultants and pollsters while leaning on a sprawling voter mobilization network aimed at turning out Texans who rarely make it to the polls. In recent weeks, Mr. O’Rourke has visited several college campuses, a likely nod to an often inconsistent voting segment — younger voters — that he hopes to draw into his coalition.
