Rising Democratic star Beto O’Rourke to seek presidential nomination

Texas Democratic figure Beto O’Rourke has finally decided to jump into the 2020 race for the US president, a few months after gaining a national following with his long-shot election battle against US Senator Ted Cruz.

O’Rourke told a Texas TV station on Wednesday he would seek the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

“I’m really proud of what El Paso did and what El Paso represents,” O’Rourke said in a text to TV station KTSM. “It’s a big part of why I’m running. This city is the best example of this country at its best.”

The 46-year-old former three-term US congressman from West Texas will make his formal announcement on Thursday morning, the television station said.

With his presidential effort, the former congressman is hoping to leverage the national following he gained with his Senate race last year against Republican Ted Cruz. Though he lost, the close result was considered impressive for a Texas Democrat.

O’Rourke inched closer to a run in a Vanity Fair cover story released earlier Wednesday. “You can probably tell that I want to run,” he said. “I do. I think I’d be good at it.

“Man, I’m just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment,” O’Rourke said.

He plans to head to Iowa for a three-day trip starting Thursday, the Dallas Morning News reported, and his supporters were receiving emails asking for help sending out text messages Thursday morning.

He was a heavy underdog when he challenged Cruz, a Republican, in mostly conservative Texas, but he quickly demonstrated an ability to draw capacity crowds and raise money from voters nationwide.

His Senate bid generated a torrent of media attention and excited voters in a party desperate for fresh political faces. He lost the race by less than 3 percentage points, the tightest Senate contest in the state in four decades.

Early opinion polls on the 2020 race have consistently ranked O’Rourke in the top tier of contenders, behind former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet said whether he is running, and US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.