Former Congressman and candidate for U.S. Senate, and current darling of the liberal media, Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke announced Thursday he would indeed be launching his bid for the presidency in 2020 among an already crowded Democrat field.
Having decided to get the band back together, load up the proverbial van, and head out for his tour across the nation’s early primary states, O’Rourke is immediately beginning his candidacy in Iowa.
O’Rourke, who gave up his congressional seat for a failed campaign against Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, made the announcement in a video to his supporters Thursday morning, following months of speculation and side-stepping on the issue. In the three-minute clip, an animated O’Rourke previewed his platform, which includes confronting “the hard truths of slavery and segregation” in the country, “reasserting our global leadership”, and, of course, universal taxpayer-funded healthcare.
Unsurprisingly, he included a pitch for amnesty and open borders as well, saying, “if immigration is a problem, it’s the best possible problem for this country to have.” O’Rourke has positioned himself far to the left of most Americans on this issue, being in a small minority of lawmakers in Washington to have voted against a resolution honoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement. O’Rourke has even said recently he would like to take down the border wall in El Paso, despite evidence that the barrier has curtailed crime in the city dramatically since its installation.
The announcement video was, however, uncharacteristically free of expletives.
“Beto” is the sixteenth candidate to enter the race to take on President Donald Trump, and the second candidate from Texas—following former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro’s early announcement last December.
On the morning of O’Rourke’s announcement, Castro released a list of endorsements from Democrats in the Texas state legislature, including several members from El Paso and South Texas where O’Rourke underperformed during the 2018 primary.
With the first Democrat primaries and caucuses just under a year away, Texans—and now Americans at-large—should be prepared to endure the leftist media’s incessant fawning over the newest entrant into their clown car of 2020 candidates.
