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O'Rourke on Obama Not Endorsing His Campaign: 'I Don’t Think We’re Interested'

Rep. Beto O'Rourke / Getty Images
October 5, 2018

Democratic Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke on Thursday appeared to shrug off the fact that his campaign didn't receive an endorsement from former President Barack Obama earlier this week.

Obama released his second round of over 200 midterm endorsements on Monday, but O'Rourke is not among the 9 new, 11 total, candidates Obama endorsed from Texas.

O'Rourke, a third-term congressman in Texas' 16th Congressional District, downplayed the apparent snub and praised Obama for his service to the country,  according to the Texas Tribune.

"I don’t think we’re interested [in an endorsement]," O’Rourke said after a town hall at a local high school. "I am so grateful to him for his service, he’s going to go down as one of the greatest presidents. And yet, this [election] is on Texas."

Obama's endorsements include five candidates for the Texas House and six running for U.S. Congress, including his potential successor in the 16th Congressional District, former El Paso County Judge Veronica Escobar. O'Rourke said his campaign didn't reach out to the former president for an endorsement and noted this isn't the first time he hasn't received an endorsement from Obama. Former President Bill Clinton and Obama both endorsed Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes (Texas) in 2012, but O'Rourke defeated the incumbent in a close Democratic primary.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll shows incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) leading O'Rourke by 9 points, 54 percent to 45 percent.