The top story on the "Press" section of Rep. Beto O'Rourke's (D., Texas) Senate campaign website is a article about how he could be a worthy challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020.
In a friendly profile in left-leaning Vanity Fair, Peter Hamby said he and a Texas beat reporter agreed the liberal enthusiasm for O'Rourke was "like Iowa in 2007" for then-Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, who would go on to win the Democratic nomination in 2008 and serve two terms as U.S. president.
However, O'Rourke has pledged to serve a six-year term if elected in 2018, meaning he wouldn't run against Trump in 2020.
NBC News reporter Alex Seitz-Wald, who wrote about O'Rourke's appeal to national Democrats on Thursday, tweeted, "The top story on the 'Press' section of Beto O'Rourke's website seems a bit...off message."
The top story on the "Press" section of Beto O'Rourke's website seems a bit...off message. https://t.co/kCnCRayiA1 pic.twitter.com/o0O4kSWqJ3
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) October 18, 2018
His opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), has used his popularity with progressives nationally as an attack line, calling him out of step with Texans and suggesting he's trying to run for president.
"He's pursuing the national Democratic activists in Iowa, New Hampshire—not El Paso," Cruz said last week.
Cruz also compared him to failed Texas gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who lost by 20 points in 2014.
"Every two and four years, the national media starts to swoon and say there's a blue wave in Texas. Four years ago, we saw it with Wendy Davis," Cruz said last month. "Like Beto O'Rourke, Wendy Davis raised tens of millions of dollars and thrilled liberal Democrats in Massachusetts and New York and California."