Beto O'Rourke Enters the 2020 Presidential Campaign [View all]

[brooklynite]

Ne York Times

Beto O’Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced his candidacy for president on Thursday, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives.

His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump’s.

Yet Mr. O’Rourke also comes to the 2020 race with few notable legislative accomplishments after three terms in the House representing El Paso. And in a primary so far defined by big-ticket policy ideas, like the economic agendas of Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Mr. O’Rourke enters without a signature proposal that might serve as the ideological anchor of his bid.

“This moment of peril produces perhaps the greatest moment of promise for this country and for everyone inside it,’’ Mr. O’Rourke said in a video announcing his candidacy.