Beto still undecided
Former El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke keeps supporters guessing about his presidential aspirations but says an answer is coming soon during an interview with Oprah.
WASHINGTON — As the list of Democratic presidential contenders gets longer, former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke took to a stage Tuesday with media impresario Oprah Winfrey, superheating speculation about his own possible White House bid.
While his most ardent supporters were looking for a clear sign that he’s in, they didn’t get it.
“I’ve been thinking about running for President,” he told Oprah to cheers from a live audience. But he said he and his family still haven’t decided.
“I’m so excited at the prospect of being able to play that role,” he added. “I want to make sure my family is all on the same page. For me it will really be family that makes up my mind.”
The answer, he promised, is coming soon. “The serious answer is really soon — before the end of this month,” he said.
Meanwhile, as the field grows larger, polls suggest that O’Rourke’s share of the party’s affection is getting smaller.
In the race for volunteers and campaign talent, Oprah’s “SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square” might have been expected to provide O’Rourke with a big stage to recapture the luster of his Senate campaign against Ted Cruz.
Instead, he used it to build suspense.
The social media buzz surrounding the much-anticipated event is likely to have a bigger impact than the show itself, which was taped for Feb 16 distribution on Winfrey’s “OWN” network. It is available only to pay television subscribers and without the reach of her previous daytime TV show.
O’Rourke’s sit-down with Oprah came on the same day former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, who declared his candidacy last month, was scheduled to make his first appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live.
But O’Rourke’s interview — carrying the expectation of a potential announcement — caused much more of a stir in political circles, attracting both supporters and critics to the PlayStation Theater in New York. Reports from the street outside the theater before O’Rourke took the stage noted the appearance of protesters pressing him to support the Green New Deal.
DeGeneres to Oprah
O’Rourke, who left Congress last month after three terms, opened up about his narrow loss to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz in November. While he remains undecided about joining a crowded Democratic field vying to challenge President Donald Trump in 2020, he still did not rule it out.
Even without a definitive decision, the build-up to the media event with a national television star served to keep O’Rourke in the national conversation about the 2020 race almost up to the hour when the president was set to deliver a contentious State of the Union address.
While O’Rourke has largely avoided interviews in recent months, he has maintained an active public profile on social media, notably blogging last month during a solo drive out West where he said he went to meet people and gather his thoughts.
It has not been without cost. He faced a barrage of questions about the “funk” he recounted in his revelatory travel blog. At the same time, O’Rourke, 46, said tantalizingly little that could provide clues about his intentions.
Little changed in O’Rourke’s appearance with Oprah, where he took his place in a star-studded line of guests, including actors Bradley Cooper and Michael B. Jordan, Melinda Gates and Lisa Borders. The forum was billed as a showcase of “inspiring thought leaders,” “modern day influencers,” and “social game changers” in entertainment, politics and culture.
When Oprah announced, “Beto O’Rourke is here!” the studio audience erupted in knowing applause rivaling — by some accounts — that given to Cooper of “A Star is Born” fame.
If it had been the forum for a campaign announcement, it would have been an unconventional one, in keeping with his outsider brand eschewing pollsters, consultants and appearances in early voting states like Iowa and New Hampshire.
O’Rourke captured the imagination of Democratic activists across the nation last year in a surprisingly strong, grassroots challenge to Cruz in traditionally Republican Texas.
With a rising national profile, he appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.
Oprah Winfrey only cemented his presence in the mainstream culture.
Slide in polls
The interview came amid intensifying conjecture about a White House bid encouraged by at least two “Draft Beto” groups and a cadre of supporters nationwide.
His backers, however, said the spine of his political organization is not big media splashes like the one with Oprah but rather grassroots organizing efforts that are already underway across the nation.
“Our draft movement is outperforming the actual campaigns of declared candidates at the grassroots level,” said Draft Beto organizer Nate Lerner. “They may have more money and highpriced consultants, but they’re not in Mississippi, or Arkansas, or Illinois. But we are.”
While some have accorded O’Rourke near front-runner status on the strength of the $80 million he raised for his Senate campaign last year, some recent polls show that his support among Democrats could be waning.
A December straw poll released by the liberal group MoveOn.org showed that O’Rourke was the leading Democratic contender in the 2020 race, with 15.6 percent of responders supporting his candidacy. He was followed by former Vice President Joe Biden with 14.9 percent, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders with 13.1 percent, California Sen. Kamala Harris with 10 percent and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren with 6.4 percent.
But among a possible field of 19 announced and potential contenders, a new Monmouth University poll this week found that Biden currently has the support of 29 percent of Democratic voters, followed by 16 percent for Sanders and 11 percent for Harris.
Other candidates who register support included Warren, at 8 percent — roughly tied with O’Rourke, who was at 7 percent.
Following in the lower single digits are former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
Strikingly, as O’Rourke made a play for Oprah’s audience, the Monmouth poll showed that he and Booker do better among minority voters than they do among white Democrats.
Harris, who is of mixed race, does about the same among white voters and minorities in the Democratic Party.
But at this point in the process, name recognition appears to be the biggest driver of public opinion, making O’Rourke’s Oprah interview all the more significant.