O’Rourke reportedly considering run for U.S. Senate

El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke told the Texas Tribune on Friday he is considering a run for the U.S. Senate.

“Am I looking at one of those two races? Yes,” O’Rourke told the Tribune Friday.

He declined to specify whether he would challenge Sen. John Cornyn or Sen. Ted Cruz.

ABC-7 spoke with the congressman later Friday morning. When asked if he was planning to run for the U.S. Senate, O’Rourke said , “I’m thinking about it. I haven’t put a lot of time into thinking about it and I haven’t done much exploring in it and I’m very much focused on my job right now representing El Paso in the House of Representatives.:

Cruz is up for re-election in 2018, while Cornyn, the U.S. Senate majority whip, will be up for re-election and a fourth term in 2020, the Tribune reports.

O’Rourke told ABC-7 he would “love to see El Paso’s perspective and our border’s perspective and our community’s perspective brought to bear on national issues in the Senate. I think on behalf of El Paso it makes sense to look at the opportunity.”

The El Paso congressman is completing his second two-year term after being elected to the 16th Congressional District for the first time in November of 2012, defeating incumbent Silvestre Reyes, barely avoiding a runoff with 50.5 percent of the vote. O’Rourke is expected to be elected to a third term next week after winning the Democratic primary and facing no Republican challenger.

In 2014 he won re-election getting 67 percent of the vote over Republican challenger Corey Roen. Prior to that O’Rourke was a member of El Paso City Council from 2005 to 2011.

O’Rourke’s late father, Pat, was a former El Paso County Judge.

Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in Texas since 1994.