The Dallas Morning News reports that Beto O’Rourke will not run for the U.S. Senate again this year, as some Texas Democrats hoped, and is likely to announce that he’s running for president in the near future.
If O’Rourke had run for Senate again this cycle, three factors would work against him that did not exist in 2018. First, O’Rourke has now demonstrated that he can get almost unparalleled good press and runaway fundraising and still fall short in a year that was great for Democrats. While it’s overstating it to say that he’s seen as “a loser,” a lot of Democrats convinced themselves he was the Next Big Thing in 2018. He did better than any Texas Democrat in a generation, but he still fell short.
Second, in taking on John Cornyn, O’Rourke would be going up against a Republican senator who doesn’t stir the ire of Democratic donors the way Ted Cruz does. Democrats may not particularly like Cornyn, but they don’t seethe against him with the blinding fury of suns going supernova the way they do for Cruz.
Third, while the Democratic donor base collectively has extremely deep pockets, O’Rourke would be competing for funds and media attention against a small army of Democratic presidential candidates.
Cornyn said he was prepared for either decision from O’Rourke. While there’s still a lot of road ahead, Cornyn’s path to reelection looks a little bit easier today.