Beto O’Rourke may have lost last week to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but it doesn’t look like the Democratic congressman will soon fade away from the national scene.
The current favorites to face President Trump in 2020 are former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., according to a new Morning Consult/POLITICO survey. Biden came in first place with 26 percent of the vote, and Sanders clocked in at 19 percent.
O’Rourke, who has enjoyed a steady diet of overly supportive and friendly media profiles for nearly a year now, came in third place with 8 percent of the vote. That’s a hell of a showing for a Texas congressman who didn’t gain notoriety until very recently.
The Morning Consult poll, which was conducted between Nov. 7 and 9 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points, surveyed 1,952 registered voters.
The 2020 results are based specifically on responses from 733 self-identified Democrats. They were asked, “Of the following, who is your first choice to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for President.” Respondents were then provided with a list of potential 2020 candidates, including the ones mentioned above, as well as Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Stormy Daniels’ attorney, Michael Avenatti.
[Read more: Democrats want Beto O’Rourke to run again, and soon]
Warren came fourth with 5 percent of the vote, followed closely by Harris, who got 4 percent, and Booker, who got 3 percent. These people have been national players in Democratic circles for at least a few years now, and they still didn’t do as well as O’Rourke. Take note. Cable news hound Michael Avenatti meanwhile shared last place (0 percent) with former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and former Attorney General Eric Holder, which is about as embarrassing a thing as I can imagine for Patrick and Holder.
Aside from what appears to be a growing favorable response to the media-instigated “Betomania,” another notable takeaway from the survey is that 21 percent of Democratic respondents said they “don’t know” or had “no opinion” when asked to rank the 18 supposed White House hopefuls. A full 3 percent of respondents chose “other,” which I’m taking as a sign that the 2020 Democratic race is anyone’s for the taking.
Another survey takeaway highlighted by the Morning Consult:
Lastly, there wasn’t a huge shift in Democratic opinion when the survey administrators amended the question slightly to: “[W]ho is your second choice to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for President?” Biden came in first place with 20 percent of the vote. Sanders came in second place with 16 percent, Warren came in third with 9 percent, and O’Rourke squeezed in at fourth with 8 percent.
From a relatively obscure member of the House to a leading 2020 Democratic contender, it has been one heck of a year for O’Rourke. All it took was a failed $110 million-dollar Senate challenge and reams and reams of flattering news coverage.
