Mike Norris, Co-Editor, The American Dossier
On Friday, former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke (D-TX) announced that he was ending his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The campaign stated that it had explored all options, including the possibility of seeking public financing, before concluding that the candidate would not have the money to compete with his top-tier rivals.
O’Rourke’s sudden fall was in stark contrast to the enthusiasm that surrounded his 2018 Senate bid.
When O’Rourke launched his improbable Senate campaign, he was little-known even within his own party. Despite being a third-term Congressman, O’Rourke was not recruited by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee to run against Ted Cruz (R-TX).
In spite of the lack of early support, O’Rourke would go on to raise more than $80 million in his Senate race. Ultimately, he would lose to Cruz by 2.6%.
Buoyed by the strong performance of his Senate bid, O’Rourke was encouraged to run against President Trump in 2020.
In December, he met privately with former President Barack Obama, who encouraged him to run. In early February, he teased a run while being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey.
Beyoncé wore a "Beto" baseball cap on Instagram. LeBron James wore the same hat to a game in San Antonio.
But O’Rourke would be unable to replicate the enthusiasm he garnered during his run for Senate.
His first significant misstep came while he was still deciding if he would even run for president.
Set to announce his run for the presidency, O’Rourke agreed to be interviewed by Vanity Fair. That interview led to a March cover story with a pull quote from O'Rourke saying, "Man, I'm just born to be in it.”
He was not, as it turned out, born to be in it.
O'Rourke’s next unforced error came during his first Iowa trip, when he joked that his wife Amy was at home in El Paso raising their three children, "sometimes with my help."
O’Rourke would later admit that the Vanity Fair cover was a mistake, but by then the damage was done. The interview and the joke about his wife fueled the perception that O'Rourke was entitled and hadn't earned his way into the upper echelon of 2020 Democratic contenders.
None of that slowed him, at first.
On his first day as a presidential candidate, O’Rourke raised a staggering $6.1 million, pacing Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and former Vice President Joe Biden. O’Rourke was polling in double digits.
The early enthusiasm would quickly fade.
O’Rourke, it seemed, did not know what exactly he stood for. Insider accounts confirmed that O’Rourke could never really find a clear reason why he was in the race, and he did not have a clear agenda in mind.
His platform was mostly that he wanted to be president and felt like he was the sort of person who should be president.
The early debates did not help.
In June, O'Rourke appeared stunned when he was pummeled by former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro over immigration. Strong performances by other candidates, such as South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, further diminished O’Rourke’s spotlight.
Then, O’Rourke’s fundraising ground to a halt. In the second quarter his campaign raised just $3.6 million. His poll numbers dipped into the low single digits.
He continued to fade as the summer wore on. In August, O'Rourke stepped off the campaign trail for 12 days, following the mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso.
The tragedy gave O’Rourke the signature issue he previously lacked: gun control. In mid-August O’Rourke returned to the campaign trail with, for the first time, an animating cause for his candidacy.
In the September presidential debate, O’Rourke advocated confiscation of semi-automatic rifles: "Hell, yes, we're going to take your AR-15, your AK-47," he said.
His provocative rhetoric backfired and drew condemnation from a number of Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who said O’Rourke was making it harder to get Republicans on board with gun control measure that had a shot at passing.
The moment provided a short-term fundraising boost to O'Rourke's campaign, as he finished the third quarter stronger than the second, raising $4.5 million. It wasn't enough, though, as his campaign spent nearly $6.5 million.
O’Rourke ended the quarter with approximately $3.3 million in the bank, positioning him well behind the top-tier contenders. Sanders, by comparison, reported approximately $33.7 million on hand, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) reported just under $23.4 million on hand.
His poll numbers remained in the low-single digits, raising the prospect that O'Rourke could miss the Democratic National Committee's increased qualifying threshold for the November debate stage.
Headed into the final stretch before the Iowa caucuses, the writing was on the wall and O'Rourke finally acknowledged the reality he faced.
On Thursday, O’Rourke’s campaign manager began informing senior staffers. On Friday, O'Rourke told his full staff the news on a conference call.
By Friday at 5:30 p.m. Central time, O'Rourke arrived at the Iowa Democrats' Liberty and Justice dinner, to tell his supporters the news: he was dropping out of the race. The man who'd been a fundraising genius just a year ago could not raise enough money to go on.
President Trump quickly weighed in on the development.
"Oh did you hear? Beto," Trump asked supporters at a campaign rally in Mississippi. "Oh, that poor bastard. Poor pathetic guy. He was pathetic.”
O’Rourke joins more than a half-dozen candidates who have dropped out of the race this year, including Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio.
After serving as an Airborne Infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mike attended Florida State University, where he received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science and George Washington University, where he received his Masters in Political Management. Mike is currently attending the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where he is pursuing his Juris Doctorate.
Since 2004, Mike has worked in the Florida Senate, where he was one of only two Chief’s of Staff under 30 and in the Michigan Senate, where he served as the Legislative Aide to the Assistant Minority Floor Leader. The 2018 election cycle was Mike’s eighth as a Political Consultant.
Mike previously served as the Secretary and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, Regional Vice Chair for the Florida Federated Young Republicans and attended the 2012 Republican National Convention as an Alternate Delegate.
He currently lives in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, with his rescue Pit Bull, Ike.
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