Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) said Monday that he would not rule out a run for president in 2020, backtracking on recent statements that he would not seek the White House.
O’Rourke, who rocketed to national fame with his campaign to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), indicated Monday that he and his wife are discussing the possibility.
“Amy and I made a decision not to rule anything out,” O’Rourke told reporters after a town hall in El Paso, Texas, according to The Washington Post.
Cruz defeated O’Rourke in a surprisingly close race in deep-red Texas, but the El Paso Democrat’s loss immediately sparked widespread calls for him to challenge President Trump.
{mosads}During his Senate campaign, he pushed aside calls for him to run for president, saying on MSNBC: “I will not be a candidate for president in 2020. That’s, I think, as definitive as those sentences get.”
The progressive star, a three-term congressman, has drawn comparisons to former President Obama.
O’Rourke’s wife, Amy, said that the couple has not spoken with any political strategists, and said that the possibility of her husband running a presidential campaign was flattering and “scary.”
“To me that just seems like you have to give up so much,” she said, according to the Post. “I don’t know if this is a line that I or we really want to cross.”
O’Rourke would be entering a crowded field of Democrats hoping to take on Trump in 2020, with many speculating that former Vice President Joe Biden and Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) could all throw their hats in the ring.