Beto O’Rourke 2020 campaign megathread

[Beet]

Not a bad speech, good crowd. Texas is finally making its mark!

[Some of My Best Friends Are Gay]

While I don't think crowd sizes can predict results, I do think that the candidate with larger crowd sizes is more likely to outperform their polling numbers, thus why I think Sanders may have a bigger advantage in some states than the polls suggest, and why Beto is probably in a stronger position than he appears to be in the polls.

I think both O'Rourke and Sanders will be in the final three, although I'm not sure which one wins or who the third candidate will be (Harris?).

[Bumaye]

Facebook event RSVPs:

El Paso - 1.8K going + 4.5K interested = 6.3K

Per his communications director:

https://twitter.com/ChrisEvans_TX/status/1112051444906110981

No offense but that's less than what I expected. It's his home city after all. It is decent, I don't wanna dismiss anything, I heavily supported him against the Zodiac Killer and he was one of the most interesting characters of the midterms to me, but with all the buzz about him I expected BernieHarris numbers (15k-20k).

[OneJ]

Eh...I expect him to have bigger numbers in Austin and Houston, I guess. But El Paso itself is a nice-sized city. I definitely expected more.

[Beet]

Eh...I expect him to have bigger numbers in Austin and Houston, I guess. But El Paso itself is a nice-sized city. I definitely expected more.

El Paso is much larger than Oakland.

I mean to be fair the San Francisco metropolitan area is 5 million whereas El Paso's is 800,000.

[Holmes]

The rally was on one street downtown, facing the border.  It wasn’t an open space.

[Adam Griffin]

El Paso is also - despite its relatively large size - basically an island of isolation. The closest areas of any size are Albuquerque, Odessa and Tucson (all ~250 mi away). There's just nothing anywhere close to the city outside of its immediate metro area.

Additionally, El Paso can only have voters travel to see candidates from 3 directions instead of the usual 4 - I doubt many Mexican citizens are going to bother to come to a US campaign rally.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Houston - 2K going + 7.4K interested = 9.4K

https://twitter.com/robsfriedlander/status/1112124203287887872

[Grassroots]

The rally was on one street downtown, facing the border.  It wasn’t an open space.

This. Plus add all the people watching in watch parties.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Should I join team Beto or team Bernie? I am undecided between the two. I could see myself being a Bernie bro or a Beto bro.

[riceowl]

Houston - 2K going + 7.4K interested = 9.4K

https://twitter.com/robsfriedlander/status/1112124203287887872

I’m here rn. Doesn’t seem like 10k but I’m not in charge!

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Should I join team Beto or team Bernie? I am undecided between the two. I could see myself being a Bernie bro or a Beto bro.

Why not wait for the debates?  You don't have to decide right away.

[Rookie Yinzer]

Austin - 2.9K going + 11K interested = 13.9K

https://twitter.com/robsfriedlander/status/1112204748126511104

[SCNCmod]

Having a combined 30,000 for the 3 rallys is definitely a strong showing.  (granted I was optimistic or maybe naively expecting slightly higher numbers at the Austin Rally- but I guess timing is always a small factor- picking a time and date that will max out attendance, which is hard to accurately predict).

Hopefully these rally's will get decent coverage on Sunday shows.  But it seems like some of the cable media is almost forcing Beto to come on their shows in order to get good coverage (by not covering much of the rallies, egging on about lack of specifics, etc etc)....hich maybe what he has to start doing.  The rallys are especially good for early states & small states- but going on the cable show will help reach broader audience (and help gain more small dollar donors across the country).

---Or another strategy could be to continue slowly gaining wider grassroots support via rallies (while most candidates have to rely on Cable News town halls, going of shows, etc to gain supporters)...
Then start doing the media blitz in a couple of months when he has nailed down all of his policy specifics- and really try to break out of the pack at just the right time. 

Not sure which strategy would work the best?

[GoTfan]

Having a combined 30,000 for the 3 rallys is definitely a strong showing.  (granted I was optimistic or maybe naively expecting slightly higher numbers at the Austin Rally- but I guess timing is always a small factor- picking a time and date that will max out attendance, which is hard to accurately predict).

Hopefully these rally's will get decent coverage on Sunday shows.  But it seems like some of the cable media is almost forcing Beto to come on their shows in order to get good coverage (by not covering much of the rallies, egging on about lack of specifics, etc etc)....hich maybe what he has to start doing.  The rallys are especially good for early states & small states- but going on the cable show will help reach broader audience (and help gain more small dollar donors across the country).

---Or another strategy could be to continue slowly gaining wider grassroots support via rallies (while most candidates have to rely on Cable News town halls, going of shows, etc to gain supporters)...
Then start doing the media blitz in a couple of months when he has nailed down all of his policy specifics- and really try to break out of the pack at just the right time. 

Not sure which strategy would work the best?

Not to sound like some stupid pundit, but I think winning grassroots support will pay off for him in the end. He obviously is planning something along the lines of his Senate campaign, just on a national scale. He doesn't have the major star power someone like Harris or Sanders does. Those two will always pull in massive attention.

That said, he could use the rallies to unveil his key planks, which may actually kill the three bbirds of grassroots support, media attention and policy specifics all in one. That would be the approach I'd take.

[HAnnA MArin County]

Not to sound like some stupid pundit, but I think winning grassroots support will pay off for him in the end. He obviously is planning something along the lines of his Senate campaign, just on a national scale. He doesn't have the major star power someone like Harris or Sanders does. Those two will always pull in massive attention.

That said, he could use the rallies to unveil his key planks, which may actually kill the three bbirds of grassroots support, media attention and policy specifics all in one. That would be the approach I'd take.

LoL yeah that must explain why he raised more money in 24 hours after his announcement than your candidate did. And how tonedeaf are you to say that he doesn't have star power? I thought that was you BernieBros' only line of attack on him was that he has too much celebrity power. Which is it?

To say that Kamala has star power but Beto doesn't sounds to me like #AlternativeFacts. Kamala is so overrated.

[wbrocks67]

Not to sound like some stupid pundit, but I think winning grassroots support will pay off for him in the end. He obviously is planning something along the lines of his Senate campaign, just on a national scale. He doesn't have the major star power someone like Harris or Sanders does. Those two will always pull in massive attention.

That said, he could use the rallies to unveil his key planks, which may actually kill the three bbirds of grassroots support, media attention and policy specifics all in one. That would be the approach I'd take.

LoL yeah that must explain why he raised more money in 24 hours after his announcement than your candidate did. And how tonedeaf are you to say that he doesn't have star power? I thought that was you BernieBros' only line of attack on him was that he has too much celebrity power. Which is it?

To say that Kamala has star power but Beto doesn't sounds to me like #AlternativeFacts. Kamala is so overrated.

Can we not do the HRC-Bernie thing again? Please? No need to tear down other candidates to make yours seem better. Beto and Kamala are both great.

[RI]

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/30/beto-orourke-signed-this-pledge-oil-money-did-he-break-it/

[Sestak]

The rally was on one street downtown, facing the border.  It wasn’t an open space.

This. Plus add all the people watching in watch parties.

If you don’t count ‘watch parties’ for other candidates it’s stupid to count them for Beto. That’s basically “count one city for other candidates, and the entire county for Beto”. It’s already dumb enough to compare turnout in one city to three like people are doing here.

[Grassroots]

The rally was on one street downtown, facing the border.  It wasn’t an open space.

This. Plus add all the people watching in watch parties.

If you don’t count ‘watch parties’ for other candidates it’s stupid to count them for Beto. That’s basically “count one city for other candidates, and the entire county for Beto”. It’s already dumb enough to compare turnout in one city to three like people are doing here.

I'm not sure that other candidates had an organized watch party system like Beto had.

[Sestak]

The rally was on one street downtown, facing the border.  It wasn’t an open space.

This. Plus add all the people watching in watch parties.

If you don’t count ‘watch parties’ for other candidates it’s stupid to count them for Beto. That’s basically “count one city for other candidates, and the entire county for Beto”. It’s already dumb enough to compare turnout in one city to three like people are doing here.

I'm not sure that other candidates had an organized watch party system like Beto had.

It’s still comparing apples and oranges.

[Sbane]

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/30/beto-orourke-signed-this-pledge-oil-money-did-he-break-it/

I'm glad he is taking contributions from people who work in all industries. Going to a carbon neutral future is going to require working with the oil and gas industry.

[Sestak]

https://twitter.com/patricksvitek/status/1112781526809313280?s=21

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

https://twitter.com/patricksvitek/status/1112781526809313280?s=21[/tweet]


THEY ALRASDY DO: ITS CALLED REALDONALDTRUMP ON TWITTER D COM

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

https://twitter.com/patricksvitek/status/1112781526809313280?s=21

This is a really bad idea