This revelation seems very pragmatic to me. As much as i would love to see him run for President, and as strong his message would be in influencing the rest of the Democratic field, i fully respect his process in making his decision. Unless he is all in, don’t run. There are several other very talented and excellent candidates in the race for POTUS. His support will help any one of them. And, as much as i would love to see him take down Cornyn in the Senate, i also think he would make an excellent candidate for VP. In either race, we haven’t seen the last of Beto. He is a superstar. He’s new, and he is very valuable to the Democratic Party. He will be for a long time to come.
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That would be excellent. Someone has to. And I know it’s doable.
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You don’t want to feed the trolls. It’ll give you indigestion.
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But I need a full list. A statement that is merely outrageous on its own merits isn’t necessarily sufficient evidence.
Not this time, Beto. You’re young. Take your time to rest and recover.
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“He is an inexperienced, blue-dog, conservative Democrat”
I don’t spend much time around TPM these days, but it’s good to know that you’re still completely full of shit.
Either that, or you believe that preserving public education, ensuring and extending rights for the disabled, and taking steps to address climate change are “conservative.”
"Education Texans Can Trust: Every Texan deserves access to a quality education that will allow them to reach their full potential. It is the surest path to individual success and for the collective success of our state and country.
• No public tax dollars should be given to private schools.
• Increase public funding for low income and underserved communities.
• Public school teachers should have their retirements protected by ensuring that we do away with the Windfall Elimination Provision.
• We should continue to take steps towards moving control to the classroom and empowering teachers to fulfill their calling by having autonomy to teach their students and reduce the emphasis on arbitrary, high-stakes tests.
• Strike down toxic legislation like Senate Bill 6 and any regulation that discriminates against a student based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
When the United States adopted the Americans with Disabilities Act, we became the first country in the world to pass comprehensive civil rights legislation for individuals with disabilities. Today, we must protect and build on that legacy to ensure the 3 million Texans with disabilities have an equal opportunity to participate in our communities, enjoy a high-quality life and live with dignity.
Here’s how we can work together to achieve that:
• Fight attempts to weaken the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including efforts to limit equal access to public places and businesses, and defend Social Security, Medicaid, and long-term supports and services from cuts and caps.
• Protect the Affordable Care Act and its provisions that ensure individuals with disabilities can access high-quality healthcare, including guaranteed coverage for pre-existing conditions, the prohibition on cost discrimination, and the elimination of annual and lifetime limits.
• Expand access to services in the home and community as an alternative to institutionalization through legislation like the Disability Integration Act.
• Fully fund our commitments under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act so that students with disabilities can receive the services and instruction they need to live and contribute to their full potential.
• Tackle the high unemployment rate for people with disabilities by supporting quality education and improving access to meaningful work opportunities.
Energy and the Environment
It is crucial now more than ever that the U.S. and world leaders act urgently to address the issue of climate change. We must ensure the funding and independence of organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) so that they can provide necessary climate science research.
Other steps we can take to promote energy and environmental reforms include:
• Enacting comprehensive energy reform that optimizes the uses of current energy sources while incentivizing the innovation of new and renewable sources of energy.
• Rejoining the Paris Climate Accords.
• Empowering the EPA to exercise oversight of those harming the environment, particularly drilling, fracking, and pipeline construction.
• Supporting stronger land-use policies in Texas.
Texas has a proud and honorable tradition of responsible gun ownership for hunting, sport, self-defense, and collecting. Like so many Texans, Beto learned to safely handle and shoot a gun at a young age — taught by his Uncle Raymond who was a sheriff’s deputy and a jail captain. That shared heritage — that uniquely Texas experience — means that our state should lead the way in preserving the Second Amendment while working together to ensure people can live without fear of gun violence in their communities.
We should:
• Require background checks for all gun sales to ensure that firearms only get into the hands of responsible, law-abiding individuals. This means finally closing the gun show, online, and boyfriend loopholes.
• Stop selling weapons of war and high-capacity magazines to ensure that firearms designed to kill as effectively and efficiently as possible on the battlefield aren’t used in our schools, our streets, our churches, and our concerts.
• Block the erosion of Texas’ license to carry standards by opposing Concealed Carry Reciprocity, which would force Texas to allow anyone from states with weak to nonexistent conceal carry laws to disregard our own public safety requirements.
• Fully support federal research on gun violence so that we can better understand and address its root causes.
Do I think O’Rourke should run for President? No, but that’s only because there are already several excellent candidates with stronger resumés. The notion that O’Rourke is “conservative” is crap, and even a cursory glance at his campaign website would reveal that.
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Off topic, but I hope plain, old, ordinary Prime will not be squeezed out in favor of the more expensive Prime AF and Prime Inside. TPM is not the only media outlet I support, and I’ve honed my skills at ignoring ads.
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I hope he runs for governor!
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I don’t know when Greg’s latest term is up again but that would be good. We need someone good to defeat that little grey motherfucker.
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And then there was this yesterday at TheHill:
O god.
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A lot of people are pushing O’Rourke to run against Cornyn as a passive-aggressive way to get him out of the presidential race. But if you can’t knock off Ted Cruz in a midterm wave, you almost definitely can’t knock out Cornyn in 2020.
Beto has a bit of time to mull things over, recuperate from his TX run. It’s still only January 2019. The Democratic Convention is a year and a half away.
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Yep.
Sorry, I’m like totally Berned out on the independent Senator from Vermont.
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Now all we need is for Hillary to decide to run again.
just shoot me now.
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As you say, a long way to go. I care who it is, but anyone of the potential candidates will get my 2020 vote.
As far as Beto goes, I don’t know who democrats could put in that race who could have a better shot. Trump isn’t doing potential republican candidates any favors by threatening to seize all the private land on the border with Mexico, something both current Senators have supported. So I feel like his prospects there are only improving, while his national prospects seem a bit slim.
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Not much chance of that happening.
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Bullshit! We get bluer with every election and whoever we run for president will have coattails and Cornyn has been in the Senate about 10 times longer than Cruz has and that is how we got rid of Pete Sessions = we campaigned on his being there too long.
Cornyn is toast all along the border, in Dallas Co, Harris, Co, Travis Co. El Paso Co, the entire Valley - I could go on. You are dead wrong.
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Thank you. The same song with the same drivel as Ralph Nader telling a believing white privileged left there were no differences between Al Gore and Bush the Lesser.
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Amen. Go find the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus editorial begging Bernie not to run for President again, and to start paying attention to Vermont’s issues. They just nailed him. Then go read the comments, mostly the Bernouts who reveal again that Bernie can never fail; Bernie can only be failed.
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