A thrice-failed Democratic political candidate is considering running for a Senate seat in a consistently right-leaning state — if voters want him to.
Former Texas Democratic Rep. Robert “Beto” O’Rourke said at a town hall in Denton, Texas, on Saturday that he would be open to launching a Senate campaign for the 2026 midterm elections. Republican Sen. John Cornyn is running to hold onto his Senate seat against state Attorney General Ken Paxton, while no Democrats have entered the race so far.
“If it comes to pass that this is what the people of Texas want, that it’s the highest and best use of what I can give to you, then yes, I will,” O’Rourke said when asked about a potential Senate run.
“We’ll see what the future holds, but I’m going to do whatever is the greatest good for the greatest number in this state,” O’Rourke later told local news outlet WFAA. He said he is focused on running the liberal PAC Powered By People he founded in 2019.
O’Rourke served as a House member from Texas between 2013 and 2019. The former representative ran unsuccessfully for Senate in 2018, dropped out of a presidential race in 2019 and lost a race for Texas governor in 2022 but took to the stage to stoke enthusiasm for the Democratic Party. He lost the 2018 election to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas by 2.6 percentage points and the 2022 election to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott by 11.
O’Rourke did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The former candidate also spent the town hall criticizing President Donald Trump, specifically accusing him of persecuting “transgender” people in response to a question from a “trans-identifying” town hall attendee.
O’Rourke brought the attendee up on stage and declared support, saying, “We’re going to stand with one another.”
“The way that these tinpot dictators, these wannabe tyrants, these authoritarians work is they try to pick the most vulnerable among us, the people that they hope you do not want to be associated with,” O’Rourke said. He then pivoted, saying, Trump should respect “the rule of law” and “due process” before deporting alleged gang members to prisons in El Salvador.
“What you do to the least of us unchecked will happen to the rest of us pretty soon,” O’Rourke said.
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