Beto O’Rourke: Can the Democrats’ Boy Wonder Keep his Spark Through 2020?

When Beto O’Rourke first started making national headlines during the early days of the 2018 Texas Senate elections, few would have predicted that this fresh-faced three-term congressman would be at the fore of 2020 presidential speculation before the year was out. But here we are now in March of 2019, and Congressman O’Rourke is still hanging around at the top of 2020 rankings with such heavyweights as Senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders and Vice President Joe Biden. And that’s not just over-excited pundits; O’Rourke is consistently among the top five candidates in polls of Democratic voters (and the official launch of his campaign seems to have pushed him solidly into the top four), and the opening day of his campaign saw him raise $6.1 million, more than any other candidate―including Sanders, whose $5.9 million haul received widespread attention.

O’Rourke’s success on the national stage has little to do with policy. He’s publicly clashed with President Donald Trump on the border, expressing not just opposition to building a border wall, but also support of dismantling current border infrastructure; he also supports combating climate change, a two-state solution in Israel, gun control, and stronger antitrust laws. However, most coverage of him has centered around his charisma, his success in the Texas Senate race, and his remarkable fundraising abilities. Part of the reason for this is that his policy substance leaves something to be desired; it seems that not even O'Rourke knows O’Rourke’s position on healthcare.

O’Rourke’s detractors have pointed out that he lost that Senate race, but it’s remarkable that in a state as red as Texas, which has gone to the Republican presidential candidate in every election for the past three decades, he came within three percentage points of flipping Texas in the Senate. Republicans criticizing O’Rourke for being a charismatic, tall, and lanky congressman whose only claim to fame is losing a high-profile Senate race should be especially careful; they are—as they’re fond of repeating—the party of Lincoln.

Democratic voters this election cycle are very, very intent on winning―more so than usual. For many voters, any candidate who gets Donald Trump out of the White House is a good candidate. And if Democrats want to win, O’Rourke, the congressman who nearly flipped Texas and can raise miraculous amounts of money, might be the way to go.