Beto O’Rourke 2020 campaign megathread

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Friendly reminder that Beto voted down both nonlethal military aid to a democratic state actor and support for free media on the laughable grounds that it would involve the US in an Afghanistan-style war and belongs nowhere near executive power

But he still voted to increase military spending under the Trump administration. A very odd voting record there.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

The last thing America needs is its own Macron. It's absolutely insane for a so called left wing party to nominate a Wall St lackey.

That's what it's done for the last 7 Presidential elections.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Beto supported marijuana legalization in his first Congress campaign in 2012. Before any state legalized it.

In fact he actually primaried an incumbent over the issue. The incumbent tried to discourage the El Paso City Council from passing a resolution supporting legalization and threatened that federal funding to the city could be cut if it was passes.

Beto was the primary sponsor of the resolution. And in response to that he challenged the incumbent and won.

Total Republican.

It's almost as if marijuana legalisation isn't the only thing progressives want.

And Cory Booker does well on that one issue.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Any progressive with any pretension of self awareness would know that Beto is an establishment shill with movie star looks, an attractive wife, and a nice home in whatever El Paso's version of Parkland, FL. He's ran a (frighteningly) good campaign against a popular incumbent basically arguing "vote for me 'cause I'm cool."

He's basically the white straight male version of Kamala Harris. I thought you'd all detest him, but I'm not surprised at certain posters who have neither 'nads nor spine. Any Democrat who would choose Beto over Kamala is basically an unconsciously bigoted person.  

I wonder if Beto has ever prosecuted anyone for marijuana or campaigned against a ballot measure to legalize it.

Oh wait, he's actually supported marijuana legalization since he was a City Councilman and campaigned for it in his first campaign for Congress too.

Not even remotely similar to Harris.

Yeah he’s defo been better than her on that  (although Harris actually created programs so low level drug offender didn’t have to go to prison ) but he has consistently voted to her right in congress.  He’s not exactly AOC. Especially on economic justice he’s really not that different from someone like Booker. Who happens to be pretty good on marijuana legislation..so.
While I like Beto and I am glad he’s running because I think he’s really good on social justice. I also think his candidacy ironically highlights white privilege. No POC could ever run for president if they’d been arrested several times.  Nor would they have a bunch of powerful people urging them to run if they just lost their race ( see Abrams and Gillum).
Also his his family is extremely wealthy and are able to fund campaigns in ways no other candidates can.
So no in that respect he’s not even remotely similar to Harris or Obama or whover people compare him to.

The difference between Beto and Abrams and Gillum is he's held a federal office, and was running in a far more inhospital state.

His district was D+17 though.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Republicans want Bernie Sanders to be the nominee and fear Beto could drain key constituent support from him. They are trying to cut him off at the knees before he even enters the race.

If they're attacking him for white male privilege then maybe they want Harris to be the nominee.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Republicans want Bernie Sanders to be the nominee and fear Beto could drain key constituent support from him. They are trying to cut him off at the knees before he even enters the race.

Yeah, that almost never works out when the opposition party tries to pick their competition. Just a couple of examples:

1960: Being Catholic, Nixon believed Kennedy would give him the edge in the election.

1980: The Democrats wanted Reagan to be the GOP nominee, as they saw him as "too Conservative for the Nation to handle".

2008: Obama was seen as the man that could lose the election to McCain, and Clinton as a guaranteed loss.

2016: Trump was seen as the man who would lose the election by 20 points.

It did work in 1972, and Trump is in a lot of ways...very Nixonian.

One example of success doesn’t exuse the strategy’s long history of failure.

True, but once again, Trump is very Nixonian, and he has a vast right-wing media machine [and Manchurian agents like CNN and Politico] this time, not just insider operatives.

Also, there's 1988 when Gary Hart was sabotaged by the genius that turned a 20-point drop to an 8 point win.

Is Trump so Nixonian that he had the Club For Growth attack himself in the last primary?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I'm going to LOL if we find out the reason he's been waiting is so he can announce mere hours after Biden, and steal some of his media thunder. Hell, maybe they're both playing chicken with each other at this point.

And what if Biden waits until October to announce he's not running? The joke will be on Beto.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Beto O’rourke is the single most blatant example of a media-created candidate I have ever seen in my time following politics.

What the heck is his claim to fame?

In a matter of like a year he went from an unrecognized nobody in the house to a major national figure despite a failed senate bid.

Say what you may about Beto... But the single biggest farce is the notion that Beto is a media creation.  Its almost the exact opposite IMO.  Beto generated buzz for his out of nowhere rise to make the Texas Senate race so competitive... and with Rally's that were bigger than some of the biggest presidential rallies.

The Media was very late to the game in covering this.  And the media has been very reserved about Beto's Presidential Prospects.  In fact I think the media has been overly critical on overly tepid regarding Beto's potential Presidential run (compared to almost all of the other candidates).

Kamala is much more of the Media darling thus far. 

PREACH! MSNBC isn't even trying to hide the fact that they're in the tank for her. Deja vu from the 2008 primaries... *sigh*

Seeing the fear that Beto evokes in both the Trumptards and the BernieBros on here signals to me that he's clearly doing something right to trigger so many deplorables on both ends of the political spectrum.

#FeelTheBeto

I'm not worried about Beto.

A sample of n=310 respondents said they supported Clinton 61-Sanders 34.

W/ Biden:
Biden - 35% of Clinton supporters and 15% of Sanders '16 supporters.
Sanders - 14% of Clinton supporters and 46% of Sanders '16 supporters.
Harris - 12% of Clinton supporters and 8% of Sanders '16 supporters.
Warren - 8% of Clinton supporters and 6% of Sanders '16 supporters.
O'Rourke - 8% of Clinton supporters and 2% of Sanders '16 supporters.

W/O Biden:
Sanders - 22% of Clinton supporters and 52% of Sanders '16 supporters.
Harris - 17% of Clinton supporters and 11% of Sanders '16 supporters.
Warren - 11% of Clinton supporters and 7% of Sanders '16 supporters.
O'Rourke - 9% of Clinton supporters and 3% of Sanders '16 supporters.

Also, O'Rourke does better with older voters (50+) rather than younger voters (18-49). With Biden, it's 8% and 4% respectively and without Biden, it's 11% and 5% respectively. Beto doesn't seem to be as much of a threat to Sanders that I thought he would be, at least not right now. And Harris does better with younger voters than older voters in this poll while past polls show the opposite.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Beto got his 2nd endorsement from NY:
https://twitter.com/GarrettHaake/status/1106273782237458434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%...

Maloney is one of the most right-wing Democrats. But he somehow fooled some people into thinking he was a progressive when he ran for AG. Perfect for Beto.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Oh yes, we need another President who tries desperately to get one Republican vote for the Heritage/Mitt Romney/Bob Dole healthcare plan.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It appears to me, just based off of the endorsements and the campaign theme Beto is building, that he will be running as a more Moderate Dem, in the same vein as Biden, Hickenlooper, etc.

I mean to be fair, the endorsements don't necessarily make the campaign. Sanders got endorsements from conservative Democrats like Collin Peterson and Dan Lipinski, but his campaign was anything but moderate.

They only endorsed Bernie after he won their district.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Beto reeks of an empty suit who will try to use his good looks and charisma to propel himself to a position he has not earned yet, and who the people would put their whole faith on, only to be sorely disappointed in the vein of Trudeau or Macron.

True, he's like an upgraded version of Jon Ossoff.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Beto has so many skeletons in his closet the left won't like if they bother to look.

We bothered to look. While it's sort of cool that he belonged to a hacking group, most of the other things aren't so cool.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Anyway, yikes:
https://twitter.com/ddayen/status/1106617741220282368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwca...

Images from tweet:

RIP Beto campaign.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I have a hunch about Beto's strategy for the primaries. He is running as a centrist/moderate (and maybe the only one of significance--IF BIDEN DECLINES) hoping to win over many of the same people that supported Hillary in 2016 and counting on all the progressive/socialist candidates to split that segment of the party across many candidates. In other words, Bernie had his segment of the party all to himself last time, but he won't have this luxury this cycle. Beto may even be able to win over some progressive voters (voting for personality over policy) as well as disillusioned Republicans. If I was forced to wager real $$$ on this outcome, I'd favor Beto for this reason. And double-down on it IF BIDEN DECLINES. #betonbeto

Thats a terrible strategy considering there are only two progressives and about 10 moderates running.

Imagine unironically thinking everyone not named Bernie or Warren are moderates

There are a few other progressives running, but of the 7 candidates polling more than 1%, those are the only 2 progressives.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ok my question is y tf would he flip flop on healthcare after defending it while running STATEwide in texas and then chooses the opposite in a national D primary.

Unfortunately, it's only solidified my suspicion that he never really wanted to be in the Senate and had his eye on the presidency all along. I don't want to harp on it too much because I can't prove it (obviously), but I was confused at why he seemed to be pandering to a national audience during his Senate run, even after he'd gotten national attention, he could have moderated on a few things like the assault weapons ban and picked up more votes.

That's the problem with rewarding losers and (punishing winners like Sherrod Brown by telling them they have to stay in the Senate or a GOP Guv will replace their seat). It creates perverse incentives that you can never really be sure aren't causing harm.

How has Beto flipped on healthcare- he has always supported Universal Healthcare (just not single payer that must be provided by government run programs).  But also that after Universal Healthcare is achieved... other systems are worth considering.

I think every Dems goal should be for immediately restrengthening the ACA (and reimplement the caps on Private insurance profit margins), Add the public option, and implement the tweaks to Obamacare that Dems have said is needed. Only then should anything else be pursued... otherwise you won't have the infrastructure, much less the votes needed, to achieve the next step.

Problem with that is then the GOP will wrangle there way into suggesting all sorts of ways to do away with ACA, but obviously discreetly. They;ll see that weakness and exploit it.

But going for M4A mercilessly now until the GOP cry uncle creates ground to start off with what you suggest.

You want proof: Look at how gay marriage turned out once the party perfectly painted skeptics as homophobic. Look at how Nancy Pelosi dismantled Bush Jr's attempts to privatize Social Security.

The history is there, so why compromise as a starting point now?

Beto is from the Obama wing of the party. Pre-capitulate to the old Republican position so that the Republicans are forced to adopt a more right-wing position to oppose it.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Ok my question is y tf would he flip flop on healthcare after defending it while running STATEwide in texas and then chooses the opposite in a national D primary.

Unfortunately, it's only solidified my suspicion that he never really wanted to be in the Senate and had his eye on the presidency all along. I don't want to harp on it too much because I can't prove it (obviously), but I was confused at why he seemed to be pandering to a national audience during his Senate run, even after he'd gotten national attention, he could have moderated on a few things like the assault weapons ban and picked up more votes.

That's the problem with rewarding losers and (punishing winners like Sherrod Brown by telling them they have to stay in the Senate or a GOP Guv will replace their seat). It creates perverse incentives that you can never really be sure aren't causing harm.

How has Beto flipped on healthcare- he has always supported Universal Healthcare (just not single payer that must be provided by government run programs).  But also that after Universal Healthcare is achieved... other systems are worth considering.

I think every Dems goal should be for immediately restrengthening the ACA (and reimplement the caps on Private insurance profit margins), Add the public option, and implement the tweaks to Obamacare that Dems have said is needed. Only then should anything else be pursued... otherwise you won't have the infrastructure, much less the votes needed, to achieve the next step.

Problem with that is then the GOP will wrangle there way into suggesting all sorts of ways to do away with ACA, but obviously discreetly. They;ll see that weakness and exploit it.

But going for M4A mercilessly now until the GOP cry uncle creates ground to start off with what you suggest.

You want proof: Look at how gay marriage turned out once the party perfectly painted skeptics as homophobic. Look at how Nancy Pelosi dismantled Bush Jr's attempts to privatize Social Security.

The history is there, so why compromise as a starting point now?

Beto is from the Obama wing of the party. Pre-capitulate to the old Republican position so that the Republicans are forced to adopt a more right-wing position to oppose it.

Have Donald Trump's 2 SCOTUS appointments woken you up from your belief that Hillary and Trump are identical?

No one claimed that they were identical.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Beto O'Rourke in 2012 said the US had an 'extravagant government' that needed 'significant' spending cuts

O'Rourke at the time endorsed cuts to defense and domestic spending in the middle and long term, along with seriously considering changes to Social Security and tax laws that would do away with some tax breaks. Those past positions are at odds with the current and more progressive liberal base of the party that has largely embraced increased government programs like cost-free college and "Medicare for All."

The deficit and national debt are no longer major parts of O'Rourke's political message, and though sometimes light on specifics, he's signaled support for the Green New Deal and, at times, universal health care coverage -- two proposals that would require increased government spending.

The deficit and debt became a lightning rod in the race in which O'Rourke, who had just left the El Paso city council, unseated eight-term incumbent Rep. Silvestre Reyes in the Democratic primary for Texas's 16th district. Republicans, who controlled the House of Representatives at the time in the summer of 2011, had demanded a deficit reduction plan from then-President Barack Obama in exchange for raising the debt ceiling.

Well, he did decide to cut foreign aid to Ukraine. But he later voted for Trump's bloated military budgets.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bernbots about to move the goal posts again:

https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/1108183569174794240

FYI you can't win this

>IF beto's had less donations and a greater avg donation Berniebots will call him an elitist DNC hack fed by Wall street

If it is the opposite where he had more donations and a lower avg donation Bernie Bots will claim that Beto supporters aren't as motivated.

This is one of the worst hot takes I've ever read.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

/in b4 hofoid says something about "neoliberal billionaire housewives"

We got the fundraising numbers:

https://twitter.com/ryanobles/status/1108365181439148037

Id say this is a really great start for Beto, not only because of the fact that he outraised Sanders, but he did so with less people. This means that if Beto's campaign, if he emerges as a frontrunner, could scale rather well, and he may become a fundraising machine.

On the otherhand, this kinda plays into the idea that Beto's numbers were just larger and less plentiful, which may signify a weakness in how large his base is(of course, this is day 1, so I doubt this will stick).

Pretty good day to be a Beto supporter, Id say, and a pretty bad day to be a Sanders/Harris supporter. Now we just need Biden for the full picture.

While those are strong numbers to be sure, I think the fact that Sanders beat him in terms of the number of individual donors by almost 100K is still something to consider. Money does matter, but currently (this could change), it seems like there are more actual voters behind Sanders.

I think that’s a very valid point. It’s cool that Beto’s numbers are under $50 per person, but there’s still more Sanders folks as of now. It does put to rest the idea that all of Beto’s money came from oil tycoons dropping $2,700 per tycoon on his campaign.

Releasing things piecemeal can be a very good way to keep your name in the news. I feel like that might be what the O’Rourke campaign is trying to do.

I actually think it's pretty good news for Beto.  If he can beat Sanders with a smaller base at this point in time, imagine how much he can raise when he expands his base and manages to get the nod.

He probably has a lot more maxed out donors who can't give again. We'll find out next month when we get the FEC reports.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Another thing, is he raising general election money? I've seen people saying that he was asking for $5600 donations, or $11200 together with a spouse. I don't think Bernie is raising general election money.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It was a predominately white crowd at a predominately white university. Try harder.

Here he is like an hour later at an HBCU... lol

https://twitter.com/BetoORourke/status/1109197161311412225

So he tweeted a 4 photos of himself with African American students? If you want to refute the idea that Beto has significant minority support, the answer isnt to take a photo posted by the candidate in question.

You’re reaching deeper than this conversation was. Bernie was made fun of for having predominately white audiences in traditional black spaces such as a black church in a majority black town in South Carolina. Beto having a predominately white crowd at a predominately white university is not comparable. Beto did however have a black audience in a black space UNLIKE Bernie. It is what it is.

The CNN poll that just came out has Bernie's favorable with non white Democrats as 77-9 compared to Beto's 35-14. Beto really has a problem there.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Unique contributions wasn't unique donors. Of course they dump this on a Friday.

https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/1109293384005570560

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Unique contributions wasn't unique donors. Of course they dump this on a Friday.

https://twitter.com/PatrickSvitek/status/1109293384005570560

Your fear is showing

It's quite obvious who the Bernie people fear right now.

Likely because Beto will be Obama 2.0 and compromise on every single thing? He already backed off Medicare for All, and don't give me the stupid pragmatism argument.

You have NO idea of what American political culture is like, do you? lol

American political culture is that every President turns out to be far more right-wing than they campaign as. You'd be a fool to expect Beto to be anything but the standard New Democrat that he was for his 6 years in congress.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Another thing is that a lot of the people (from all ages, genders, ethnicities) I have talked with have Beto as their number TWO. If this anecdote is occurring elsewhere, Beto might uniquely benefit from candidates dropping out. Its another thing he might share with Lincoln.

The polls show that Bernie and Biden tend to be the top 2nd choices.