Beto O'Rourke, the Democratic presidential candidate best known for fecal horseplay and his incessant apologizing, has gone from "woke" to "broke" in a matter of months. The candidate who was enthusiastically embraced by the Democratic establishment during his failed Senate bid against Ted Cruz in 2018 is discovering that no one really cares about him when he's running against other Democrats.
Woke to Broke: Beto's Fall From Grace
The latest bit of bad news for Beto comes via the Daily Beast, which is reporting that political reporters have basically stopped trying to dig up dirt on the floundering candidate:
In the days leading up to Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, a top Republican opposition research firm was brimming with requests from political reporters angling for dirt.
America Rising, a political action committee that shared details of its internal inquiries with The Daily Beast, said the asks came from a dozen or more reporters and ranged from broad questions to more tailored points of interest.
But 10 weeks after O’Rourke’s official launch, those requests are virtually nonexistent.
"The requests for oppo on him have completely died off," a staffer at the oppo group said.
It's not an entirely unsurprising development, given Beto's momentous decline in the early primary polls. He's circling the drain of statistical significance in key states, such as New Hampshire, and currently occupies sixth place in the Real Clear Politics national polling average, after running a strong third shortly after his campaign launch in March. Few journalists are presumably interested in getting oppo on John Delaney, either.