Beto O’Rourke might be appearing on another ballot soon.
On Friday, TMZ released a video of Congressman Beto O’Rourke in front of the U.S. Capitol building, talking about his political future. In the video, O’Rourke said he has not yet decided what his next move will be since losing the Texas Senate race earlier this month, but said he is not closing the door on a bid for the White House.
“No, [I haven’t given any thought to running for president]…, it’s been a little more than a week since we lost this election and ran this race, so I’m still taking that in and trying to figure it out,” O’Rourke said. “I haven’t made any decisions about anything, everything is too fresh still.”
O’Rourke gained national notoriety when he ran as a Democrat against Senator Ted Cruz in the midterm election last week. O’Rourke outraised Cruz, but was unable to topple to Republican firebrand, 51 percent to 48 percent. Libertarian Neal Dikeman, a Libertarian, took home the difference between the two candidates. Since O’Rourke’s loss, national Democrats have been encouraging the El Paso Democrat to seek the party’s nomination for president in 2020, with the chance to face Republican incumbent Donald Trump in that year’s general election. O’Rourke previously ruled out running during the midterm campaign, but has not ruled out running since his loss this month.
If O’Rourke jumped in today, he would join three other major candidates seeking the party’s nomination. Richard Ojeda, a former West Virginia state senator, Andrew Yang, a New York businessman, and outgoing Maryland congressman John Delaney are all running. Author Marianne Williamson is also exploring a candidacy.
The next presidential election will be held in November 2020.
