O’rourke: No plans to run for governor
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’rourke does not plan to run for governor in 2022.
The El Paso Democrat said on a Dallas-fort Worth television program set to air Sunday that he’s focusing on other ways to be involved in politics right now.
“I’ve got no plans to run, and I’m very focused on the things that I’m lucky enough to do right now: organizing, registering voters and teaching,” O’rourke said for an upcoming segment of “Lone Star Politics” on KXAS-TV. “I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing now.”
But Friday evening, O’rourke sent a statement to Hearst Newspapers that he’s not slamming the door shut, either.
“Nothing I said would preclude me from considering a run in the future,” said O’rourke, 48, who served in Congress from 2013 to 2019.
O’rourke said his point was that he’s focused on political organizing and teaching a political science course at Texas State University.
His latest comments come months after he told an El Paso radio station that he was weighing the possibility of a run. “You know what? It’s something I’m going to think about,” O’rourke said in that interview.
O’rourke has changed plans before. In late 2018, O’rourke was adamant that he was not going to run for president in 2020. Four months later, he jumped into the race.
For Democrats, O’rourke is seen by many as their best potential candidate against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, whom they have sharply criticized for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and for the breakdown of the state’s energy grid during February’s cold snap, which caused massive power outages.
In 2018, O’rourke came within 3 percentage points of beating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — the closest a Democrat has
come to winning statewide office since the 1990s.
Since his failed presidential run last year, O’rourke has put his time into a political action committee called Powered by People, which has been registering and trying to mobilize voters.
On the “Lone Star Politics” podcast, a joint program run by the Dallas Morning News and KXAS, O’rourke talked about Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins as potential candidates to run against Abbott in 2022.
“How about somebody like Lina Hidalgo … who has disregarded the polls and the conventional wisdom and instead followed the best public health advice and science and guidance from medical practitioners?” O’rourke said during the interview.
But Hidalgo has already pushed back against that prospect.
“My plan right now is to run for reelection. There is a lot that we still need to do,” Hidalgo said last month. “I wouldn’t say it’s something I am actively pursuing right now. The focus is on reelection.”
Texas requires candidates seeking office in 2022 to begin officially qualifying this November. Though that is seven months away, because of the size of the state, candidates for office typically start much earlier in preparation of raising the millions of dollars needed to compete statewide.
Abbott could be facing his own primary challenge in 2022. Former state Sen. Don Huffines, R-dallas, has said he’s considering taking on Abbott and could have an announcement this month.
Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, has already declared that he’s not running against Abbott and is seeking reelection