Beto 2020?
I had resisted Beto-hype. I resist any hype about the next JFK-RFK-Obama.
Then an old Democratic war horse (older than me, even!) called a few days before the election. He was watching Beto O’Rourke on MSNBC. “Check out Beto!” he enthused. “He’s our hope for 2020!”
I still resisted, because the experts predicted Ted Cruz would beat Beto by double-digits.
Then Cruz won by less than three points.
Now, attention must be paid.
Beto ran a strikingly different kind of campaign, a combination of sophisticated digital media and grassroots, person-to-person politics. He was candid, unscripted and real. He had no pollster and no big-name consultants. He was unabashedly progressive, dare I say liberal. He took no PAC contributions, and he raised a gazillion dollars in small donations.
A staple of North Carolina campaigns is visiting all 100 counties; Beto visited all 254 counties in Texas, including deep-red places he couldn’t win. But he turned out a lot of new voters, including young people, women and people of color. He turned a lot of heads. My Republican brother-in-law in Dallas voted for him because of his “positive, inclusive ideas.”
He live-streamed much of his campaign. During the long hours he spent driving across hundreds of miles of Texas highways, he mounted a camera on the dash. Thousands of viewers watched him behind the wheel, accompanied by family or aides, taking calls, talking about anything and everything, and stopping at Whataburger to eat. Whataburger should start serving Betoburgers.
One young Democrat told me why he appealed to millennials: “He did what we do. Eat out. Go on road trips with friends. Work all day and night on something big. And put it all on social media.”
It doesn’t hurt that he’s tall, toothy, handsome, has an adorable family and looks more like a Kennedy than a Kennedy.
Now there’s 2020 Betobuzz. His optimistic, aspirational message is a sharp contrast with Trump. Maybe he’s the rare candidate who can win in both the Rust Belt and Sun Belt, the two paths Democrats could take to the White House.
Or was his near-success simply a function of two supremely unpopular politicians, Cruz and Trump? One analysis said Cruz was leading by double-digits before he did a rally with Trump. That put the spotlight on Trump and all the divisive, destructive things he says and does. Coverage of the rally reminded voters of everything nasty Trump and Cruz said about each other in 2016 and, of course, of what a truly craven creature Cruz is.
In 2018, Trump was like the basketball player who keeps both teams in the game at the same time. He turned out Democrats and Republicans, but more Democrats. Yes, his base is hardening, but it’s also shrinking. Resistance is growing. Trump is deeply vulnerable, and he makes all Republicans vulnerable. All Democrats have to do is find the right opponent.
Still, Beto did lose. Only once before in American history has a politician lost a U.S. Senate race, then won the Presidency two years later.
That was Abraham Lincoln.
Beto 2020?
I had resisted Beto-hype. I resist any hype about the next JFK-RFK-Obama.
Then an old Democratic war horse (older than me, even!) called a few days before the election. He was watching Beto O’Rourke on MSNBC. “Check out Beto!” he enthused. “He’s our hope for 2020!”
I still resisted, because the experts predicted Ted Cruz would beat Beto by double-digits.
Then Cruz won by less than three points.
Now, attention must be paid.
Beto ran a strikingly different kind of campaign, a combination of sophisticated digital media and grassroots, person-to-person politics. He was candid, unscripted and real. He had no pollster and no big-name consultants. He was unabashedly progressive, dare I say liberal. He took no PAC contributions, and he raised a gazillion dollars in small donations.
A staple of North Carolina campaigns is visiting all 100 counties; Beto visited all 254 counties in Texas, including deep-red places he couldn’t win. But he turned out a lot of new voters, including young people, women and people of color. He turned a lot of heads. My Republican brother-in-law in Dallas voted for him because of his “positive, inclusive ideas.”
He live-streamed much of his campaign. During the long hours he spent driving across hundreds of miles of Texas highways, he mounted a camera on the dash. Thousands of viewers watched him behind the wheel, accompanied by family or aides, taking calls, talking about anything and everything, and stopping at Whataburger to eat. Whataburger should start serving Betoburgers.
One young Democrat told me why he appealed to millennials: “He did what we do. Eat out. Go on road trips with friends. Work all day and night on something big. And put it all on social media.”
It doesn’t hurt that he’s tall, toothy, handsome, has an adorable family and looks more like a Kennedy than a Kennedy.
Now there’s 2020 Betobuzz. His optimistic, aspirational message is a sharp contrast with Trump. Maybe he’s the rare candidate who can win in both the Rust Belt and Sun Belt, the two paths Democrats could take to the White House.
Or was his near-success simply a function of two supremely unpopular politicians, Cruz and Trump? One analysis said Cruz was leading by double-digits before he did a rally with Trump. That put the spotlight on Trump and all the divisive, destructive things he says and does. Coverage of the rally reminded voters of everything nasty Trump and Cruz said about each other in 2016 and, of course, of what a truly craven creature Cruz is.
In 2018, Trump was like the basketball player who keeps both teams in the game at the same time. He turned out Democrats and Republicans, but more Democrats. Yes, his base is hardening, but it’s also shrinking. Resistance is growing. Trump is deeply vulnerable, and he makes all Republicans vulnerable. All Democrats have to do is find the right opponent.
Still, Beto did lose. Only once before in American history has a politician lost a U.S. Senate race, then won the Presidency two years later.
That was Abraham Lincoln.