Beto O’Rourke enters the race for White House
Can Beto-mania carry ex-congressman to the White House despite relative inexperience?
The former Texas congressman is one of the least experienced candidates in the crowded Democratic pack, but also one of those generating the most buzz.
WASHINGTON — Beto O’Rourke entered the presidential race Thursday as one of the least credentialed, least experienced candidates in a crowded Democratic pack but also one of those generating the most buzz.
The former three-term Texas congressman is wellpositioned at a time when Democrats are desperate for a new approach, fresh ideas and an infusion of charisma. The candidate whose signature achievement was galvanizing Democrats behind a Senate campaign he ultimately lost will quickly test how willing the party’s voters are to eschew political pedigree and policy experience for optimism and eloquent energy.
“This is a defining moment of truth for this country and for every single one of us,” O’Rourke said in a video announcing his candidacy. “The challenges that we face right now, the interconnected crises in our economy, our democracy and our climate have never been greater.”
“They will either consume us, or they will afford us the greatest opportunity to unleash the genius of the United States of America,” he added.
O’Rourke has planned a series of events over the next several days in Iowa, which will hold the first contest in the Democratic nominating season next February.
At the first event, in Keokuk, he embraced some parts of the standard Democratic creed, saying for example that “every woman should be able to make her own decisions about her own body.” But he also took stands notably more restrained than his rivals’, such as endorsing a minimum-wage increase to $15 “within the next six years.”
Asked about marijuana legalization, which he favors, he told the overwhelmingly white crowd that people imprisoned on marijuana charges mostly “do not look like this room. They are browner and blacker than most of America.”
Later, in Burlington, he displayed a characteristic trait — avoiding specific commitments on policy questions. Asked by a voter about proposals to change the composition and character of the Supreme Court, he said, “That’s an idea we should explore,” and noted that some have advocated term limits for justices.
“That is an idea worth exploring as well,” he said.
Unlike some of his Democratic rivals’ presidential runs, however, O’Rourke’s is not built around policy positions. The former congressman, 46, captivated the attention of Democrats nationwide last year with his long-shot bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz.
He fell short. That would have been a serious career setback for most politicians, if not a career-ender. But the national momentum behind O’Rourke morphed into clamor for a presidential bid.
Democrats were so enthralled by his Senate campaign that they propelled his run with nearly $80 million in mostly small-dollar donations — nearly double what Cruz raised. Although he lost, O’Rourke came closer to unseating a Republican senator than any Texas Democrat had in 40 years.
But O’Rourke has jumped onto a very different stage than the one he commanded in Texas, where the only candidate providing contrast was universally despised by Democrats.
“It is going to be much more difficult to differentiate himself from these candidates who are all running in a similar vein as Beto — they all are standing up for something too,” said Matt Barreto, co-founder of Latino Decisions, a polling and research firm that works for several liberal groups.
“This is not like campaigning against Ted Cruz. You have this field full of candidates Democrats will also find likable.”
One important distinction is O’Rourke’s record of mobilizing new voters, particularly disaffected young people and Latinos, Barreto said. The rate at which he succeeded in getting such voters to the polls in Texas, especially in urban areas, makes some party activists believe he is uniquely suited to rebuild the coalition former President Obama twice rode to victory.
O’Rourke counts some of the masterminds behind the Obama political machine among his admirers. They say they see in him some of the same traits they did in the former president.
“There’s an authenticity factor,” said David Axelrod, who was Obama’s longtime political advisor. “There’s a hipness factor that’s galvanizing a lot of people.”
But O’Rourke has drawn fire from supporters of other presidential hopefuls, especially backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
O’Rourke’s innovative digital approach, absence of polls and focus groups, and cult following of new voters have echoes of the campaign Sanders began four years ago. That could set the Texan up as a rival to Sanders for the affections of millennial voters.
Many Sanders backers have pointed out on social media in recent weeks that O’Rourke’s voting record is far more moderate than his progressive image might imply.
Sanders’ 2016 Iowa director, Pete D’Alessandro, says the fact that the field is already packed with vibrant candidates shrinks the void an unorthodox candidate like O’Rourke would otherwise fill.
“That might be his struggle,” D’Alessandro said. “Candidacies like his usually take off if nothing else is happening.”
Another potential problem for O’Rourke is what some critics call a “weirdness factor.” He followed his Senate loss with a prolonged period of self-reflection and ambivalence that hardly seemed to position him for a presidential run.
He posted on Medium about his malaise, shared Instagram photos of his dental checkup, shunned media attention as he traveled middle America, and in the only national interview during that time seemed flummoxed about how to fix the immigration system.
But O’Rourke seemed to have little problem bouncing back to once again become a center of attention. He returned to the public stage in February in an interview in Times Square with Oprah Winfrey, in which she almost pleaded with him to run.
Soon after, he generated another big media moment, starring in a counter-rally to an event President Trump held in El Paso, O’Rourke’s hometown.
The slim, animated Texan has built his movement around an unorthodox campaign style that infuses confrontation with inspiration and a loose, informal approach that builds into motivational speechifying.
During his Senate campaign, he drew thousands to rallies in border towns that were an afterthought to Texas politicians before him. He harnessed the anger of voters outraged by Trump’s demand for a border wall and his administration’s separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border.
At the same time, he parachuted into deeply conservative rural towns to build what connections he could, earning him the respect of swing voters and praise from progressives who had long complained Democrats left votes on the table by only campaigning in the predictable places.
That is also a style that plays well in the Iowa caucuses, where victory sometimes launches presidential careers, as it did for Obama.
“Beto is a tailor-made Iowa candidate,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former Obama advisor. “He ran Texas like a giant Iowa campaign — visiting every county, retail politics.”