(John Ransom, Headline USA) Beto O’Rourke, desperate to save his flagging political career that has lost two campaigns in a row, is begging President Joe Biden not to show up in Texas and campaign for him in his race for governor, reported the Dallas Morning News, in another indication of how badly the Biden presidency is going.
“I’m not interested in any national politician — anyone outside of Texas — coming into this state to help decide the outcome of this,” O’Rourke said. “I think we all want to make sure that we’re working with, listening to and voting with one another here in Texas.”
Beto stiff arms Biden. Imagine how bad Biden’s #’s must be in TX. https://t.co/AaBEYAZXts
— Matt Mackowiak (@MattMackowiak) January 23, 2022
O’Rourke lost a Senate campaign in 2018 to Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and entered the 2020 presidential primary despite a slim political resume.
O’Rourke’s candidacy for presidency never really took hold and the Democrat has since been losing races and public interest.
“The RealClearPolitics polling average never showed O’Rourke cracking 10% in the polls,” said CNBC when O’Rourke dropped out of the primary contest, “and his popularity appeared to trend downward as the Democratic primary wore on.”
This year O’Rourke is also fighting an uphill battle, with polls showing him trailing popular Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott by 15 points. Abbott also enjoys a significant fundraising advantage, by nearly 10-1.
“After announcing a run for governor, Democrat Beto O’Rourke raised $7.6 million in 46 days,” said local WFAA.
“Meantime, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott raised $18.9 million over the last six months. And his campaign cash register now holds more than $65 million,” added the news station.
Liberals have tried to position O’Rourke as a “white” Obama, but that description may be out of touch with how Texas voters feel after seeing too much of O’Rourke since his 2018 Senate bid.
“Something I’ve heard from national Democrats, as well as some in Texas, is we’ve put our resources and our hopes and ambition into Beto O’Rourke twice,” said ABC News political director Rick Klein.
“Why is that going to be a good use of our money when we’ve got critical Senate and gubernatorial races elsewhere on the map,” he added.
It comes as no surprise, then, that a candidate who is already worried about his own popularity, like O’Rourke, wouldn’t want an unpopular president to campaign for him in a state that the president didn’t win previously.
