Former Texas Representative Beto O’Rourke has announced his departure from the 2020 Presidential race.
What We Know:
- O’Rourke, who announced his campaign in March, announced the news of his exit in an email to his supporters. He stated in a tweet this afternoon that his campaign’s goals of “seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively,” played a hand in the decision to drop out of the race.
Our campaign has always been about seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively.
In that spirit: I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee. https://t.co/8jrBPGuX4t
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) November 1, 2019
- The poll averages and funding numbers have been on the decline since July with no real gains since the last few debates. Unfortunately for O’Rourke, he also is not one of the nine candidates who have thus far qualified for the November 20th debate.
- O’Rourke was Texas’s 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 2013 to 2019 before leaving his seat to run for Senate against incumbent Ted Cruz. Despite please from Texas Dems, O’Rourke’s statement also said he would not be running for Senate.
- O’Rourke is the seventh Democratic candidate to drop out of the race, leaving 15 Dem candidates. Of the 15, the nine qualified for November are Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Andrew Yang, and Tom Steyer. Tulsi Gabbard and Julián Castro have met the donor threshold but not the polling threshold, though Gabbard is very close. The remaining candidates not yet qualified have until the November 13th deadline to meet the requirements.
The next debate, hosted by MSNBC and The Washington Post, scheduled to take place in Atlanta, Georgia, at the new Tyler Perry Studios on November 20th.
