Four years ago, Beto O鈥橰ourke became the next great hope for the Texas Democratic Party.
Starting his senatorial campaign as a little-known congressman from El Paso, he captured lightning in a bottle by barnstorming across the state鈥檚 254 counties on his way to a narrow loss to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Though he came up short, O鈥橰ourke helped sweep in down-ballot victories across the state and helping Democrats pick up 12 seats in the Texas House, two seats in the Texas Senate and boosting newcomer Lina Hidalgo over longtime Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, a Republican.
His meteoric rise brought back hope to a struggling minority party that has not won statewide office since 1994, and it attracted a frenzy of national attention that set up his run for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020.
But after dropping out before the primaries and now notching a third consecutive electoral loss on Tuesday, O鈥橰ourke is in danger of being lumped in with Democratic symbols of political failure like Wendy Davis, the former state senator who ran for governor in 2014 and the U.S. House in 2020, and the 2002 鈥淒ream Team鈥� of Tony Sanchez, Ron Kirk and John Sharp, which spent millions of dollars on flashy campaigns for governor, senator and lieutenant governor, respectively. All of these candidates once promised to help flip the state blue, but that ultimately ended in embarrassment.
鈥淲ith each new race he loses it becomes more difficult to convince voters and persuade them that he can still win the next race,鈥� said Sharon Navarro, a political scientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a very difficult barrier to overcome for a third-time loser.鈥�
Abbott and his allies are expected to frame Tuesday鈥檚 election results as a sign that Texans have soured on O鈥橰ourke and that he has exhausted his political future in the state. O'Rourke was down by 11 percentage points by Wednesday morning with some votes still being counted. He won in 19 counties, fewer than the 32 counties he won when he ran against Cruz.
鈥淭his is three statewide failed races,鈥� said Corbin Casteel, a Republican consultant. 鈥淗e鈥檚 a perennial candidate. He hasn鈥檛 shown any ability to win outside his hometown and his ideas are just way too radical for Texas and he keeps getting rejected left and right.鈥�
O'Rourke addressed his political future in his concession speech Tuesday night in El Paso, saying he would remain involved but that he did not "know what form that will take."
"I don鈥檛 know what my role or yours will be going forward, but I鈥檓 in this fight for life," O'Rourke said, a line that drew more cheers that any other in his speech. 鈥淲ho knows what's next for any of us, right? But I just cannot thank you enough."
Afterward, O'Rourke supporters said they did not want him to disappear from politics, but they acknowledged he could use a respite.
"I'd honestly like to see him take a break," said Carolina Machado, a 47-year-old school counselor from El Paso. "I think he needs some time to kind of chill and be a family man for a little bit ... but I'd love to see him get back out there and really fight for us as Texans."
Nicole Munoz, a 42-year-old paralegal from El Paso, said she would like to see O'Rourke run for president again. She fought back tears as she talked about how she likes how O'Rourke fights for the "average Joe" and people of color.
Michael Apodaca, the chair of the El Paso County Democratic Party, said one of the best things O'Rourke could do is keep building party infrastructure in the state through his Powered by People group.
"We really desperately need that," Apodaca said, referring to statewide organizing both election years and off-years. "He has the resources, he has the organization, and they鈥檙e gonna be ready to go when he calls.鈥�
Political experts say they do not expect O鈥橰ourke to disappear from the scene 鈥� though his role in future elections could change, going from candidate to organizer or fundraiser before, possibly, running again.
鈥淔or Democrats, you want to ride your fast horse until you get a faster one,鈥� said Cal Jillson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University. 鈥淯ntil you find someone better than Beto, what would be the point of exiling him into the wilderness for someone that has the skills and fundraising ability?鈥�
Perennial candidate
At this point, O鈥橰ourke is better known for the races he鈥檚 lost than the ones that he won 鈥� including serving as an El Paso councilman from 2005 to 2011 and a congressman from 2013 to 2019. After three high-profile losses in a four-year span, O鈥橰ourke will have an uphill battle to convince skeptical voters that he should launch another bid for a major office.
But such a move would not be unprecedented in Texas history. In the 1950s, liberal Democrat Ralph Yarborough ran three unsuccessful campaigns for governor between 1952 and 1956 (the term of office was two years back then) before ultimately winning election to the U.S. Senate in a special 1957 election to replace Price Daniel, who had beaten out Yarborough for the governorship in 1956.
鈥淚t does show that while it seems embarrassing and you鈥檝e gotta explain why you can鈥檛 win a big race, that you are building name recognition and there may be an election cycle that there鈥檚 an opening for you,鈥� Jillson said.
Texas Republicans have also come back from bruising political losses to rise to the highest positions in government. In 1964, George H.W. Bush lost his U.S. Senate challenge to Yarborough by 12 percentage points. But despite the loss, Bush was considered a top prospect for the Texas GOP, which was then the minority party. Bush won election to Texas鈥� 7th Congressional District two years later.
In 1980, Bush lost another major election when he was beat out by Ronald Reagan in the Republican presidential primary. But after joining Reagan on the Republican ticket that year, Bush served two terms as vice president and eventually won the presidency in 1988.
鈥淒ifferent people take different paths to office,鈥� Jillson said. 鈥淕rover Cleveland went from mayor of Buffalo to the White House in a little over three years. Things just laid out for him: mayor, governor of New York and first Democrat elected after the Civil War to the presidency.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 not that a good candidate wins every race and moves up the ladder because the environment within which you鈥檙e running even if you are a good candidate can be very difficult and in that race you might lose even if you鈥檝e got all the skills,鈥� he added. 鈥淭hings have to line up, especially at top levels 鈥� senate, governor and presidency. It鈥檚 gotta be your party鈥檚 year and then you have to have the campaign skills and finances to give yourself a chance to win.鈥�
But Matt Mackowiak, a GOP consultant, said O鈥橰ourke has not made the adjustments he needed to mount a winning campaign since first running for statewide office in 2018.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not clear that Beto has learned anything from his three losses. He鈥檚 learned how to organize, how to raise money and fire up the progressives, but none of those things have delivered victory,鈥� he said.
While O鈥橰ourke certainly had the finances 鈥� he broke fundraising records in his in 2018 and again 鈥� political experts say he will have to work hard to overcome the tricky policy positions he put himself in during the 2020 presidential primary if he wants to win statewide office in conservative Texas.
But to Mackowiak, O鈥橰ourke continued to misunderstand the Texas electorate, discussing issues in a way that motivated the progressive Democratic base but alienated middle-of-the-road voters.
鈥淗e ran a standard progressive campaign in a red state that might be becoming more purple. His whole strategy was hoping there would be more school shootings and the grid would fail,鈥� Mackowiak said. 鈥淗e had no message on the economy, and his position on the border is laughable. He didn鈥檛 give himself a chance in this race because he never moved to the middle.鈥�
Matt Rinaldi, chair of the Republican Party of Texas, said O鈥橰ourke benefited from how little people knew about him during his senatorial run. But by the time he ran for governor, his policy positions, including those that are controversial among the state鈥檚 conservative electorate, were well known.
鈥淗e was a blank slate and people put whatever their hopes were on to him,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ut as he spent the tens of millions of dollars in these races running for Senate, president and governor, people realized that he had a very scary message that would lead to increased inflation, greater crime and an open border and they rejected that. They just don鈥檛 want it here.鈥�
鈥淗e spent a lot of money on messaging but maybe he should move to California or New York,鈥� Rinaldi added. 鈥淗is message resonates a little better there.鈥�
While Jillson said it would be difficult for O鈥橰ourke to get beyond his past policy positions, it is not impossible. Barack Obama, for example, was able to to support for the issue just four years later 鈥� notably during the first year that support for same-sex marriage surpassed opposition.
鈥淗is strategy on (guns) should probably best have been, 鈥楲ook, I鈥檓 from El Paso, the shooting was very raw and fresh, that鈥檚 what I was talking about and it was an emotional response. Here鈥檚 what I鈥檓 actually going to do,鈥欌�� said Jillson, referring to the 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso that left 23 people dead. 鈥淵ou have a one- or two-sentence quick response. You have to explain what you said but you don鈥檛 have to hold to every syllable of that sentence. You can reframe it now that the moment has passed.鈥�
But Republicans said O鈥橰ourke鈥檚 challenges this cycle spread beyond his campaign to an overall issue with a struggling Democratic Party that cannot connect with Texas voters.
鈥淲e鈥檙e coming up on three decades and you have to ask, what do all these people have in common?鈥� Casteel said, referring to the period of GOP domination in Texas politics. 鈥淧romising candidates like Wendy Davis and Beto O鈥橰ourke, what do they all have in common? [Policies like] higher taxes, anti-oil and gas, anti-gun, pro-abortion. It鈥檚 just not the values of Texas.鈥�
Experts said O鈥橰ourke could benefit from taking time away from running for office. Instead, he may be of more use to Democrats as a fundraiser or organizer, two areas in which the state party is desperately lacking. Navarro said O鈥橰ourke could help build out that infrastructure to compete with the partisan and fundraising advantage that Republicans have held in the state for nearly three decades.
鈥淗e could begin to build a strong Democratic Party structure with what he鈥檚 done up to this point,鈥� she said. 鈥淒efinitely a fundraiser. He has the energy to bring that in and it could be to the success of other future candidates.鈥�
Before running for governor, O鈥橰ourke had started building out his political infrastructure to benefit other Democrats , Powered by the People. After dropping out of the presidential race, he spent much of 2020 trying to help Texas Democrats win a majority in the Texas House 鈥� they didn鈥檛 鈥� and his group to the Democrats who decamped to Washington, D.C., in 2021 to try to stop a Republican priority bill that further limited voting rights in the state.
Mackowiak said it鈥檚 unclear if O鈥橰ourke will get another shot at a statewide bid and his legacy may be that he served as a catalyst for other candidates during the 2018 cycle, when Texas Democrats desperately needed a boost.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not 100% negative,鈥� he said. 鈥淸But] at some point the Democrats will want to try to run something different.鈥�
But others think O鈥橰ourke could still have another statewide race left in him. With enough time, the political dynamics in the state may shift to be more in O鈥橰ourke鈥檚 favor, said Renee Cross, executive director of the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston. She noted that President Joe Biden ran two unsuccessful campaigns for the presidency 20 years apart before finally winning the White House in 2020, 12 years after his second attempt.
鈥淭here is certainly a place for luck in these victories,鈥� Cross said. 鈥淐oupled along with various changes that may be occurring or are occurring with our population, I could see a political path but probably not real soon.鈥�
But if O鈥橰ourke wants to have a realistic shot at statewide office in the future, Mackowiak said, he will have to make tough adjustments that he has so far been unable to make.
鈥淭he question for me is does he learn anything from this?鈥� he said. 鈥淧olitically, without something fundamentally changing, it鈥檚 hard to see how he can convince anyone he can win office in this state.鈥�
