Chris Matthews urged Beto O’Rourke to run for president in 2020, saying on Wednesday night that the Texas Democrat has the same “magic” that Barack Obama put on display in 2008.
“Democrats respond to magic,” the MSNBC host said. “Elections should be about the future.”
Matthews said that O’Rourke’s unsuccessful bid for Senate in Texas isn’t a disqualifier, pointing to George H.W. Bush’s losses in the state.
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Chris Matthews thinks this potential candidate could help Democrats recapture the White House in 2020. #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/uYQWposhis
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) December 6, 2018
Beto O’Rourke should run for president. I got a good look at Beto’s race for Senate when we hosted the Hardball College Tour at the University of Houston. There was magic in that room like when we hosted a Hardball College Tour at West Chester University up in Pennsylvania in 2008 for Senator Obama. Democrats respond to magic. I have a reason for urging a Beto run: I believe that elections should be about the future. And to those who say Beto can’t win a Senate race in Texas, let me remind you of George Herbert Walker Bush, who lost two races for the Senate in Texas.
Beto O’Rourke could be the antidote to Trumpism
Throughout the Trump presidency, Democrats have struggled to agree on a strategy to take on the president: Do they go high, or do they fight fire with fire?
The skyrocketing popularity of Beto O’Rourke shows that Democratic voters crave a candidate who embraces the politics of hope and unity, not the toxic and petty politics of Donald Trump.
They want to be inspired after two long years of the exhausting and depressing presidency of Trump.
This version of politics can be successful, as O’Rourke’s candidacy in Texas demonstrated. After all, coming within 2.6 percentage points of a victory in the Lone Star State – as a Democrat – is a pretty stunning feat.
If the rising Democratic star can transfer that success to the national stage, he could be the key to preventing a second Trump term.
The politics of hope that Barack Obama championed in 2008 is making a comeback ahead of 2020, and Beto O’Rourke could be the one carrying the torch 12 years later.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
