--- title: Beto O'Rourke Announces He's Running for President description: The 46-year-old served three terms in the House of Representatives after defeating eight-term incumbent Silvestre Reye in the 2012 primary. canonical: https://time.com/5541574/beto-orourke-running-president-2020/ author: Abby Vesoulis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-14T11:02:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T00:42:15.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Beto O'Rourke is Running for President og:description: The 46-year-old served three terms in the U.S. House, starting in 2013. og:url: https://time.com/5541574/beto-orourke-running-president-2020/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2277cb36c4cd775c/698944a0656a3f5894bd6936/beto-orourke-2020-presidential-run-decision-soon.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: beto-orourke-2020-presidential-run-decision-soon og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Beto O'Rourke is Running for President twitter:description: The 46-year-old served three terms in the U.S. House, starting in 2013. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2277cb36c4cd775c/698944a0656a3f5894bd6936/beto-orourke-2020-presidential-run-decision-soon.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Beto O'Rourke Announces He's Running for President  by [Abby Vesoulis](https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:42 AM UTCPublished: Mar 14, 2019 11:02 AM UTC  Beto O'Rourke speaks onstage at Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations at PlayStation Theater on Feb. 5, 2019 in New York City. During the interview he mentioned he will announce his decision on if he will run in the 2020 presidential election 'before the end of the month.' Beto O'Rourke speaks onstage at Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations at PlayStation Theater on Feb. 5, 2019 in New York City. During the interview he mentioned he will announce his decision on if he will run in the 2020 presidential election 'before the end of the month.'Jamie McCarthy—Getty Images  by [Abby Vesoulis](https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/)  ## Abby Vesoulis Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:42 AM UTCPublished: Mar 14, 2019 11:02 AM UTC Beto O’Rourke, the Texas Democrat who narrowly lost a U.S. Senate election to Ted Cruz in November, announced he was running for President in a [video posted online](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-vWCVx7V5w) on Thursday. “I’m running to serve you as the next President of the United States of America,” he said. On the same day, O’Rourke embarked on a road trip across Iowa — an early and important caucus state — spanning three days and more than a dozen counties. “This is going to be a positive campaign that seeks to bring out the very best from every single one of us,” he said, shown in the video sitting beside his wife Amy. “That seeks to unite a very divided country.” The 46-year-old served three terms in the House of Representatives after defeating eight-term incumbent Silvestre Reyes in the 2012 Democratic primary. Before the upset, O’Rourke was an El Paso city councilman, member of a punk band and the founder of a small web and software company. He graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. Along the campaign trail, O’Rourke will be competing against more seasoned politicians such as Sens. Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren. Former Vice President Joe Biden may also join the race. O’Rourke’s decision to run for President is not a surprise to those who have been following him. In late February, he [said](https://www.dallasnews.com/news/elections-2020/2019/02/27/sources-beto-orourke-wontchallenge-john-cornyn-senate-paving-way-presidential-bid) he and his wife had “made a decision about how we can best serve our country” and were “excited to share it with everyone soon.” Though, running for President was not the only path people thought he might take: some predicted he might try to run for the Senate again, this time against Republican John Cornyn. Others thought he might try join an existing ticket as a vice presidential running mate. Not all too dissimilar from former President Barack Obama, the Texan gained national name recognition relatively quickly. He raised an eye-popping [$80 million](https://www.texastribune.org/2018/12/07/Beto-ORourke-80-million-raised/) over the course of his 2018 campaign — more than double that of his Republican opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz. In that race, he campaigned on a platform that included increased background checks for gun sales, expanded Medicaid access and instituting congressional term limits. Cruz ultimately beat O’Rourke by [less than than 3%,](https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/texas-senate?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=7D023AC72CBE000DF03DE7C44E0088AD&gwt=pay) but the race was close in a state that hasn’t elected a [Democrat statewide since 1994.](https://www.apnews.com/677244cae2bf4c5b8311b2df445f8e5c) By comparison, Cruz won his last Senate election by [more than 15%](http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/TX/senate/) in 2012. He’s not without controversy, however. In 1998, O’Rourke was [arrested for crashing a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.](https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/beto-orourke-funk-drive-2020/index.html) The charges were [dismissed](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/beto-orourke-dwi-episode-in-1998-included-car-crash-and-alleged-attempt-to-flee/2018/08/31/6fff5bb8-ad3a-11e8-8a0c-70b618c98d3c%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.8d47b0a28ed5) after he completed a court-ordered educational program. He’s emphatically apologized for the indiscretion since, calling it a “serious mistake for which there is no excuse” in an [August 2018 op-ed.](https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Beto-ORourke-Texas-criminal-justice-reform-jail-13181472.php) But O’Rourke, a father of three, has also been criticized for the soul-searching journey he took after his 2018 loss. “Have been stuck lately. In and out of a funk,” he wrote in a [blog post](https://medium.com/@BetoORourke/a-lot-of-big-trucks-rolling-down-pancake-blvd-and-there-arent-any-sidewalks-699ca6bc7ce8) on Medium. “Maybe if I get moving, on the road, meet people, learn about what’s going on where they live, have some adventure, go where I don’t know and I’m not known, it’ll clear my head, reset, I’ll think new thoughts, break out of the loops I’ve been stuck in. Not everybody thought his public musings would have been perceived the same had he not been a white male. “Imagine this,” [wrote](https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/17/politics/beto-orourke-funk-drive-2020/index.html) senior CNN political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson in January, “a 46-year-old former congresswoman and mother of three, who just lost a Senate bid to one of the most despised incumbents, sets off on a road trip adventure to clear her head. She instagrams part of her trip to the dentist. She gives a two-hour interview to The Washington _Post_ where she shows no real knowledge of policy. Like a first-year college student, she pontificates on whether the Constitution is still a thing that matters after all these many years,” she continued. Regardless of impressions, however, the odds have never been more stacked against him. When [TIME profiled O’Rourke in May 2018,](http://time.com/longform/beto-orourke-texas-democratic-senate-race/) a friend of his told TIME that “no one thought he could win” back in his first congressional race. “But he’ll out-work anyone,” that friend said. With a huge Democratic playing field and roughly 600 days until the 2020 election, now that claim will really be put to the test. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5541574/beto-orourke-running-president-2020/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5541574/beto-orourke-running-president-2020/"},"headline":"Beto O'Rourke Announces He's Running for President","datePublished":"2019-03-14T11:02:37.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T00:42:15.000Z","description":"The 46-year-old served three terms in the House of Representatives after defeating eight-term incumbent Silvestre Reye in the 2012 primary.","url":"https://time.com/5541574/beto-orourke-running-president-2020/","keywords":["2020 Presidential Election","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2277cb36c4cd775c/698944a0656a3f5894bd6936/beto-orourke-2020-presidential-run-decision-soon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abby Vesoulis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/abby-vesoulis/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2277cb36c4cd775c/698944a0656a3f5894bd6936/beto-orourke-2020-presidential-run-decision-soon.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"beto-orourke-2020-presidential-run-decision-soon","caption":"Beto O'Rourke speaks onstage at Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations","creditText":"Jamie McCarthy—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-presidential-election/","name":"2020 Presidential Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5541574/beto-orourke-running-president-2020/","name":"Beto O'Rourke Announces He's Running for President"}}]}] ```