Beto O’Rourke 2020 campaign megathread

[Rookie Yinzer]

Yes, because a former three term Congressman who lost a Senate race to one of the most unpopular politicians in the country screams President.

Ted Cruz was saved by the state’s partisan lean. Stop acting like Beto wasn’t an A-list candidate who ran a bold and fearless campaign. Don’t hate because he might take votes from Bernie.

Oh boy.

Who does he take from? Harris? Sanders? People undecided between them?

Most polls say Sanders but wouldn't be surprised if he chipped into Harris.

He can get young white progressives. He also has a lane with working class men of color. Bernie lost them handily in 2016 so there’s no loyalty there and Harris has a serious black male problem with her past as a prosecutor for some and flat out misogyny with others. I don’t know who older white voters are going for but he should go after them too.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Remember that this forum really underestimated Beto in 2018 and I wouldn’t be surprised if y’all’re doing it again this year.

Yes, because a former three term Congressman who lost a Senate race to one of the most unpopular politicians in the country screams President.

Yes, because one of the least effective senators from one of the whitest, smallest states who lost a primary to one of the most unpopular politicians in the country does scream president?

Beto had brogressive credentials until he was a threat to St. Bernard. I’ll never forget Shadows proclamation that Beto was the most progressive politician in the country. Now he’s a right wing neoliberal cuck.

[Rookie Yinzer]

If this actually happens the board will be flooded with negative threads about O'Rourke.

It’ll just be vetting.

[Rookie Yinzer]

I really need to stop predicting people won't run. Everyone I've predicted won't run to friends/family have ended up running.

Anyway, his time was back when the midterms were still fresh in the memory. I think his hype has dried up now.

Which is why he is consistently just behind Harris and tied or ahead of Warren who have both been running full fledged campaigns for weeks? K.

[Rookie Yinzer]

If this actually happens the board will be flooded with negative threads about O'Rourke.

It’ll just be vetting.

So all of a sudden, we're not allowed to criticise someone who had a 47% rating from the Chamber of Commerce? That's higher than a Democrat should be.

I don't care what you post about his record. If it's there, it's there. But don't cry foul when someone dare criticize God King Bernard Sanders.

[Rookie Yinzer]

He’s polling better against Individual-1 than Queen Kamala and the usual suspects on here are already writing him off. Why am I not surprised?

[Rookie Yinzer]

According to Atlas, the man who ran on universal health care, $15 minimum wage, impeaching Trump, continued gun reform, preserving DACA, and getting corporate money out of politics in Texas is a Republican.

[Rookie Yinzer]

No one is calling him a Republican. The criticism I'm seeing is "not principled enough", "empty suit" etc.

Doesn't matter mate. Like Harris, no leftie is allowed to criticise Beto O'Rourke. 

One, there is a thread in this very forum about which neo-liberal pro-choice Republican is most potent and Beto is mentioned in the OP. LOL.

Two, who's not allowed to criticize O'Rourke? Aren't you doing it right now? Unlike the Sanders supporters I don't become irrational and accuse everybody of sabotaging my candidate when something I disagree with is said.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Yeah I'm pretty sure I've never seen anyone say that any candidate must not be criticized. The closest thing is a few of the dimmer Harris supporters basically saying "Non-issue, doesn't matter", which is incredibly annoying and bad debate form, but not "shut up and get back in line."

This. And how does one “get in line” when we don’t have a nominee? LOL.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Republicans want Bernie Sanders to be the nominee and fear Beto could drain key constituent support from him. They are trying to cut him off at the knees before he even enters the race.

[Rookie Yinzer]

HE'S COMING! I'M SHOOK!

https://twitter.com/MDforBeto/status/1105305499652841473

[Rookie Yinzer]

But Regarding the delay... To begin with- all of the current candidates had over a year to get ready to announce their campaign (decide to run... then have the infrastructure in place to hit the ground running in a National Campaign).  And most of those candidates delayed their announcement a lot longer than Beto if you consider when they began planning for such a National campaign.

So in addition to just the time it takes to set up a Presidential Campaign (to be able to hit the ground running)... Is the need to have a really impressive opening rally a potential reason for the delayed announcement... in that once he decided he was definitely running - it may take a little time to set up an opening that will live up to some of the large rally's Beto during the Senate campaign?

I don't think it's problematic at all for him to have delayed his announcement until this month or next month or whenever he wants to do it.  But ideally he should have gone about it like the other candidates did, which is to publicly pretend that he's still undecided up until the day that he makes his announcement.  The fact that he's said publicly that he's decided but won't tell us what the decision is yet looks rather silly, IMHO.  Not a big deal, just an example of him executing his rollout in a way that doesn't really make any sense, which might be a consequence of him being more of a newbie to the national stage than most of the other candidates.

Beto is acting like a frontrunner which he's not, maybe in January he would've been but not today. He's keeping people in suspense while many of his supporters are gravitating to other candidates. To the point where he has to spend the next few months clawing back what he lost.

This is not true. LOL. The moment he announces he will get more media coverage than everyone not named Harris or Sanders. I’m not sure where y’all are getting the hype has died down. He literally has an operation of folks ready to go the moment he announces. The only comparable online fervor for someone to enter the race was Sanders.

[Rookie Yinzer]

But Regarding the delay... To begin with- all of the current candidates had over a year to get ready to announce their campaign (decide to run... then have the infrastructure in place to hit the ground running in a National Campaign).  And most of those candidates delayed their announcement a lot longer than Beto if you consider when they began planning for such a National campaign.

So in addition to just the time it takes to set up a Presidential Campaign (to be able to hit the ground running)... Is the need to have a really impressive opening rally a potential reason for the delayed announcement... in that once he decided he was definitely running - it may take a little time to set up an opening that will live up to some of the large rally's Beto during the Senate campaign?

I don't think it's problematic at all for him to have delayed his announcement until this month or next month or whenever he wants to do it.  But ideally he should have gone about it like the other candidates did, which is to publicly pretend that he's still undecided up until the day that he makes his announcement.  The fact that he's said publicly that he's decided but won't tell us what the decision is yet looks rather silly, IMHO.  Not a big deal, just an example of him executing his rollout in a way that doesn't really make any sense, which might be a consequence of him being more of a newbie to the national stage than most of the other candidates.

Beto is acting like a frontrunner which he's not, maybe in January he would've been but not today. He's keeping people in suspense while many of his supporters are gravitating to other candidates. To the point where he has to spend the next few months clawing back what he lost.

This is not true. LOL. The moment he announces he will get more media coverage than everyone not named Harris or Sanders. I’m not sure where y’all are getting the hype has died down. He literally has an operation of folks ready to go the moment he announces. The only comparable online fervor for someone to enter the race was Sanders.

If he had all that massive support, why wait? He prolly thought he had a shot in a state-wide race, but got cold feet. 

I don’t know him personally, I can’t answer that question. What’s the rush though? He will not have any trouble reaching either of the thresholds to get into the debates. Once he enters he will be away from his kids. ALOT. Let’s all calm down.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Beto's got something planned for Tomorrow and is calling up his 2018 network to prepare for remote action like phonebanking. The announcements tomorrow.

Also, hes on the cover of Vanity Fair April - Can't hurt.

I’M NOT READY!

[Rookie Yinzer]

Whew! I see the rabid supporters of several candidates are on Twitter pressed and BITTER. Beto-mania is going to be a freaking earthquake tomorrow.

[Rookie Yinzer]

https://twitter.com/MadamClinton/status/1105986524510912513

[Rookie Yinzer]

YAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

One of the few worth supporting in the field, along with Mayor Pete and Warren.

[Rookie Yinzer]

The announcement video has leaked:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y3CWsyiDWHrHOy30ygvKEk_77oq3uK3L/view

[Rookie Yinzer]

https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1106155281845760000

[Rookie Yinzer]

What time is his announcement supposed to be?

It’s happened. I posted it a couple of posts up. He will doing a kickoff rally in El Paso on March 30.

[Rookie Yinzer]

https://twitter.com/VABVOX/status/1106093839486541824

I thought Kamala stans were not going after anybody running but Bernie. The fact that there have been more than a half dozen other white men jump in and none of them were accused of white male entitlement shows that they are threatened and trying to tear this man down for no reason. He has every right to state his case to voters. If someone prefers to vote for a woman or candidate of color that is their absolute right to do so but the lame smears are not going to make his supporters coalesce around your girl.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Useless candidacy. Some Democrats need to realize that they can't just be president and that it would be better for a lot of these people to do other things rather than continue to crowd the field.

Please tell that to the almost 80-year old man whose chief policy achievements were throwing an entire generation of black men in prison and expanding the death penalty.

[Rookie Yinzer]

snip

I thought Kamala stans were not going after anybody running but Bernie. The fact that there have been more than a half dozen other white men jump in and none of them were accused of white male entitlement shows that they are threatened and trying to tear this man down for no reason. He has every right to state his case to voters. If someone prefers to vote for a woman or candidate of color that is their absolute right to do so but the lame smears are not going to make his supporters coalesce around your girl.

The gender politics around Beto though are worth acknowledging. Any female candidate who left her family to do a solo cross-country trip and write blog posts about it would get crucified. Beto's a strong candidate but he absolutely benefits from some male privilege.

Nah. We can have that conversation. That tweet wasn’t that. Calling him an entitled white male because “He lOsT tO TeD cRuZ” purposely ignoring the fact that he put the fear of God into the Texas GOP and made inroads with the EXACT type of voter we need in 2020 and misrepresenting his quote about being “born to be in it” is gaslighting.

Kamala’s crew was touting that “Vote Blue No Matter Who”  mantra and refusing to take swipes at any non-Bernie candidate until a real threat got into the race. It’s no coincidence she’s running to Houston for a rally next week.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Kamala is SHOOK

https://twitter.com/hollybdc/status/1106190148868427777

[Rookie Yinzer]

snip

I thought Kamala stans were not going after anybody running but Bernie. The fact that there have been more than a half dozen other white men jump in and none of them were accused of white male entitlement shows that they are threatened and trying to tear this man down for no reason. He has every right to state his case to voters. If someone prefers to vote for a woman or candidate of color that is their absolute right to do so but the lame smears are not going to make his supporters coalesce around your girl.

The gender politics around Beto though are worth acknowledging. Any female candidate who left her family to do a solo cross-country trip and write blog posts about it would get crucified. Beto's a strong candidate but he absolutely benefits from some male privilege.

Nah. We can have that conversation. That tweet wasn’t that. Calling him an entitled white male because “He lOsT tO TeD cRuZ” purposely ignoring the fact that he put the fear of God into the Texas GOP and made inroads with the EXACT type of voter we need in 2020 and misrepresenting his quote about being “born to be in it” is gaslighting.

Kamala’s crew was touting that “Vote Blue No Matter Who”  mantra and refusing to take swipes at any non-Bernie candidate until a real threat got into the race. It’s no coincidence she’s running to Houston for a rally next week.

Beto's got the good luck of being a privilege white male who happened to gain national exposure by nearly beating Ted Cruz. Now, I don't want to take away just how close we came to beating the most notorious GOP senator in red Texas, it's just unfair that after losing O'Rourke has to steal the spotlight again from more qualified candidates in the race. I think if he wants to be involved in politics he should just become the national state party chairman, or run again for either a higher office position, governor or state-elect senator.

I'm afraid despite his charisma O'Rourke won't have the guts to beat Trump in a election like I have the confidence in other candidates such as Harris and Booker.

I’m not here for it. Beto literally said in his VF interview he understood someone declining to vote for him in order to get a female or non-white president. He’s just running his race and trying to avoid being problematic unlike others I won’t mention. Y’all are barking up the wrong tree.