Despite media promises that he could unseat the supposedly most unpopular Republican in the Senate, Beto O’Rourke burned through millions to lose to Ted Cruz. Despite Vanity Fair unscrupulously granting him a cover calling himself “born” to win the Democratic primary, O’Rourke burned through millions to lose to dozens of other candidates long before the Iowa caucuses. And despite pollsters and papers declaring Texas a toss-up in 2020, O’Rourke acted as one of the most costly Pied Pipers of 2020, coercing Democrats to pour tens of millions of dollars down the drain to deliver Texas to President Trump and reelect Sen. John Cornyn by 10 percentage points (as of early Wednesday morning).
With Pennsylvania unable or unwilling to continue its vote count and Trump celebrating a Florida win and staring down a potential Arizona loss, it’s far too early to say whether Joe Biden will seal a predicted victory. But one thing about the map is for sure: Money was wasted when a very winnable candidate needed it to be spent wisely.
Despite heading into the election as the long-shot candidate in key swing states, Trump pulled off an exceptionally early victory in Florida and safe ones in Ohio and Iowa. Although a Biden win in Arizona could throw a monumental wrench in Trump’s path to reelection, Biden’s map to victory is much narrower than it should be.
Democrats could have funneled money to close Biden’s glaring gap with Latinos, especially consequential in Florida. They could have bolstered Steve Bullock and Cal Cunningham to the Senate. Instead, Democrats followed an onanistic media trailing Beto off a cliff to incinerate millions of dollars on a popular incumbent senator who held a double-digit lead over Democrat MJ Hegar for a year and a state that hasn’t gone blue in nearly half a century.
The story is similar to all the millions wasted on Jon Ossoff (twice, probably), unseating Lindsey Graham (nice try) and replacing Mitch McConnell in Kentucky (um, no). But has any other charlatan convinced the media to run with his schtick not once, not twice, but three times? I think not. Beto has proven himself a bust time and time again. Will the media finally accept it?
