Legally, Beto O'Rourke Can Run for President and Senate in 2020 [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

Congressman Beto O’Rourke has risen to superstar status. He is now widely known by a single name—Beto—like Prince, or Cher, or Elvis. Enthused by Beto’s near miss against Cruz, Democrats in Texas and around the country are urging Beto to run for president in 2020, egged on by a news media hungry for ratings, sales, and social media clicks. Beto’s media presence is even eclipsing the one Texan poised to seek the Democratic presidential nomination: former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. Along with his congressman brother, Joaquin, Julian Castro not so long ago was touted as the youthful Hispanic future of Texas. Who better to lead the state’s Democrats out of the Republican wilderness of the past two decades than one of the Castro brothers? But in the afterglow of this year’s election, “The Castro Brothers” sounds more like a reality TV show about flipping houses than about flipping the partisan tilt of Texas. Beto now is the guy who can fill the arena.

During the election, Beto was adamant that he would not run for president. If he lost the Senate race, he said, he just wanted to go home and spend time with Amy and his children Ulysses, Molly, and Henry. Any decision on challenging Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn in 2020 would also have to wait. Then this week Beto cracked the door on a possible presidential run by no longer ruling it out.

When I first started contemplating this article, my idea was that if Beto wanted to help the Democrats retake the White House, he probably would better serve his party by running for Senate against Cornyn to put Texas into play. Texas has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976. In no small part, that’s because national Democrats have refused to spend money on Texas. If Texas with its 38 Electoral College votes had gone for Hillary Clinton in 2016, she would have won the presidency just with the states she actually carried. Her campaign spent $100,000 in Texas. On the other hand, Beto raised $70 million for his Senate race against Cruz. A viable Democrat challenging Cornyn easily could put the state’s electoral votes into the kill zone for a dynamic Democratic presidential candidate.

Then I thought: Why doesn’t Beto run for both the presidency AND the U.S. Senate?

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/technically-beto-orourke-can-run-president-senate-2020/