Beto O’Rourke announces White House bid: ‘This is a defining moment of truth’

Former El Paso Congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced he is running for president in 2020.

“I’m running to serve you as the next president of the United States,” O’Rourke said in a video sitting next to his wife Amy. “This is a defining moment of truth for this country.”

In Iowa Thursday, O’Rourke said, “I could care less about your party persuasion, your religion, anything other than the fact that, right now, we are all Americans.”

O’Rourke said he will travel the country listening to voters, then will return to El Paso on March 30th for an official campaign kickoff.

“This is going to be a positive campaign that seeks to bring out the very best from every single one of us,” O’Rourke said in the video announcement. “We saw the power of this in Texas.”

During his Texas senate campaign against incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz, O’Rourke emboldened Democrats in perhaps the reddest state in the nation. Despite avoiding political consultants and refusing money from political action committees, O’Rourke raised more than $80-million from donors across the U.S.

He lost the senate race to Cruz by fewer than 3 percentage points in Texas, where voters have not elected a Democrat to statewide office in 25 years. In the process, he became a national star for the Democratic Party.

In a recent cover story for Vanity Fair, O’Rourke said, “I want to be in it …. Man, I’m just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment.”

O’Rourke’s high-profile has earned him the support of celebrities like Lebron James and Beyonce, led to national television appearances with Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres and caught the eye of President Donald Trump.

On February 11, 2019, the date the president held a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum, O’Rourke participated in a “march for truth” before addressing thousands in a baseball field across the street from the county coliseum.

O’Rourke and those who participated in the rally said they mobilized to set the record straight after Trump, during his State of the Union Address a few days earlier, said El Paso was once one of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. The president further claimed the installation of border barriers transformed El Paso into one of the safest cities in the country.

During his speech that night, O’Rourke said El Paso is “one of the safest cities in America – safe not because of walls, but in spite of walls … We are making a stand for the truth.”

That same night, President Trump mocked O’Rourke, insisting the former congressman has “very little going for himself except he’s got a great first name.” Trump also mocked the crowd size at O’Rourke’s rally that night: “That may be the end of his presidential bid.”

O’Rourke has voiced his opposition to Trump’s proposed border wall and the administration’s controversial policy of seperating migrant children from their families at the border. When he spoke with Winfrey in early February, O’Rourke reflected on the administration’s now-defunct policy.

“Here you have this great country separating little children and babies from their parents after they survived a two-thousand mile journey. They were coming to this country – asylum seekers, immigrants and refugees – and at their most vulnerable and desperate moment, those babies are ripped away from their arms,” O’Rourke said.

The former congressman told Winfrey Americans are to blame for letting the government go that far. “This (was) happening in your name in this country. Do not blame Donald Trump. Do not blame this on a political party. Do not blame this on someone else. If we’re a democracy, then the government is the people and it’s on every single one of us to make it right,” said O’Rourke.

O’Rourke was born in El Paso in 1972, where he attended Carlos Rivera and Mesita Elementary schools. In 1991, he graduated from an all-male boarding school in Virginia. Four years later, he graduated from Columbia University in New York City with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature. O’Rourke returned to El Paso in 1998 and co-founded the software service company Stanton Street Technology.

In 2005, O’Rourke was elected to El Paso City Council along with Susie Byrd and Steve Ortega – the so-called progressives. During his time on Council, O’Rourke led the charge in favor of health care benefits for the domestic partners of municipal government employees. Council eventually moved forward with the benefits, invalidating an ordinance against domestic partner benefits approved by voters.

A year into term as a city representative, O’Rourke faced a recall over plans to redevelop Downtown El Paso, at first, resorting to eminent domain.

The then city representative would survive the recall attempt, and in 2012, announced he was taking incument El Paso Congressman Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary. O’Rourke defeated the long-time congressman. During his three terms in Congress, O’Rourke made veterans a priority, working to establish a mental health clinic for veterans and reducing wait times at the VA hospital.

O’Rourke often draws criticism for a DWI arrest when he was young. On the Ellen Show in September 2018, O’Rourke said his DWI arrest 20 years ago does not define him and that everyone deserves a second chance after making a mistake. “It was a terrible mistake and there is no justifying that,” O’Rourke said, “that mistake did not define me.”

O’Rourke said he went on to create a business, start a family and serve his community. “I was able to go on and do these things. But I know, to some degree, that is a function of the fact that I am a white man in this country,” O’Rourke said, “If I was African-American and I had been arrested with marijuana, it could be very hard for me to get a job. I would not be able to finance my student loans and that could have narrowed my options.”