Failed Senate and presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke is "going to think about" launching a failed bid for governor of Texas in 2022, the Houston Chronicle reported Thursday:
Democrat Beto O’Rourke has left no doubt that he’s weighing a run for governor next year.
"You know what, it’s something I’m going to think about," O’Rourke said in an exclusive interview on an El Paso radio station earlier this week.
And in case anyone missed the interview, supporters of a political action committee O’Rourke started called Powered By People is circulating it on social media.
Beto, who became a political celebrity after losing to Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) in 2018, entered the Democratic presidential primary in 2020 after telling Vanity Fair he was "born to be in it." He dropped out eight months later, having failed to find a viable constituency for his central campaign message of unapologetic gun confiscation.
If not senator or president, perhaps Beto was "born to be" governor. But probably not. By launching a (competitive but ultimately unsuccessful) campaign to defeat incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott (R., Texas) in 2022, Beto could achieve a rare trifecta of political failure. Few other politicians in American history have tried and failed to be elected senator, governor, and president within a span of four years.
In the interview with the El Paso radio station, Beto criticized Abbott for his "complete indifference" to saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. "I want to make sure we have someone in the highest office in our state who’s going to make sure that all of us are OK," he said.
Texas currently ranks 25th in COVID-19 deaths per million, well behind large Democratic-run states such as New Jersey (1st), New York (2nd), and Massachusetts (3rd).