Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke urged Americans on Wednesday to help him create a movement mirroring his unsuccessful 2018 Senate campaign.
“If we’re going to confront the challenges that we face, we can’t return to the same old approach,” O’Rourke said during a Democratic presidential debate. “We’re going to need a new kind of politics, one directed by the urgency of the next generation.”
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The three-term congressman was notably defeated by Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in November after he consistently lagged in the polls. However, as the Senate race tightened to a margin of single digits in the red state, speculation of O’Rourke entering the national political arena began to percolate with many arguing that he had begun a national campaign in lieu of the statewide race.
“Those climate activists who are fighting not just for their own future, but for everyone’s. Those students marching not just for all of ours,” O’Rourke told the debate crowd. “We need a movement like the one we lead in Texas — it renewed our democracy by bringing everyone in and writing nobody off.”
“That’s how we beat Donald Trump,” he continued. “That’s how we bring this great country together again.” (RELATED: Beto Reveals What His First Order As President Would Be)
O’Rourke amassed a war chest of cash during the election cycle after donations from around the country began rolling — accordingly, he received more campaign contributions in one quarter than any Senate candidate in American history.
“Join us,” O’Rourke added. “This is our moment.”
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