After a couple of months of dithering, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced that he is, in fact, running for president. As ABC news reported, O’Rourke landed in Iowa on Thursday morning and began shaking hands.
O’Rourke appeared in the Texas Panhandle several times last year, during his high-profile but ultimately unsuccessful run for Ted Cruz’s Senate seat. O’Rourke paid more attention to the Texas Panhandle than any statewide candidate in memory, holding town halls and stumping in towns like Muleshoe, Pampa, and Plainview. If he were to win, the young former Congressman would be the first President to hail from West Texas.
O’Rourke has largely staked his political career on the fact that he hails from the border town of El Paso—which, he says, gives him a deeper understanding of immigration issues. O’Rourke is fluent in Spanish.