Texas Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Beto O’Rourke was quick to squash speculation he’s a 2020 presidential contender during his last day on the campaign trail.
“I will not be a candidate for president in 2020,” O’Rourke said in an interview in Houston, Texas, that aired on MSNBC Monday. “That’s I think as definitive as those sentences get.”
“I will not be a candidate for president in 2020,” Beto O’Rourke tells @GarrettHaake.
“That’s I think as definitive as those sentences get.” https://t.co/aLDxTCMo4q pic.twitter.com/jPdiTZHOiS
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) November 5, 2018
O’Rourke is competing against Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz. to represent Texas in the Senate. It’s become one of the most high-profile races of the 2018 midterm election cycle given the amount of money O’Rourke has raised to support his efforts to turn the Lone Star State blue. Cruz ran for president in 2016 while still a freshman senator.
[Opinion: Why Beto O’Rourke is going to lose, in one photo]
In an interview Sunday with CBS’ “60 Minutes” program, O’Rourke, who is facing a likely defeat Tuesday, said the impact on his young family of five was one of the reasons he wasn’t considering seeking higher office.
“We’ve spent the better part of the last two years not with each other, missing birthdays, and anniversaries, and time together. Our family could not survive more of that. We need to be together,” O’Rourke said. “I’m saying that if elected to the Senate, I’ll serve every day of that six-year term. I’m not looking at 2020, and in fact, I’m completely ruling that out. I’m not going to do that. Win or lose, I’m not running in 2020.”
Cruz is 6.5 percentage points ahead of O’Rourke, according to RealClearPolitics’ polling average as of Monday.
