Just like Obama, Democrats fear the idea of ​​Beto 2020

If you thought that Betomania was finished when the Democratic congressman lost his Senate bid for outgoing Senator Texas Ted Cruz, you'd better think again.

Beto went to the national level.

With praise from all participants, from Beyoncé to former President Barack Obama, to the representative of Texas, who foreshadows a possible victory at the White House in 2020, Beto O 'Rourke became the the country's leading cause of donors and Democratic activists – and waits to shake what is already announcing itself as a field of overcrowded Democrats defying President Trump.

Mikal Watts, a lawyer from the San Antonio area and a specialist in Democratic money, recently told Politico that several donors and political agents from the first Iowa caucus, the State of the National Caucus, had contacted him at about the possible offer of the White House by O'Rourke.

"They do not want to participate in other presidential campaigns until they know if Beto is going," Watts said. "And if Beto is running, what good Progressive Democrat would not want to work for Beto O'Rourke?"

Watts added, "I can tell you that there has not been this kind of electrical excitement about a candidate since" Barack Obama ran in 2008.

The comparison between Obama and O'Rourke has continued since the latter for the first time shook Cruz's candidacy for re-election in Texas, but it has grown since the mid-term elections, when O'Rourke lost barely 51 to 48% of the votes of his Republican opponent. In addition to Cruz's $ 70 million fundraiser, O'Rourke's stature and his nearer-than-expected performances were attributed to the victory of at least two Democrats over the most disgusting party in the world. Republic.

Obama, who burst onto the national scene as a Senate candidate in 2004 with his speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston, has drawn a parallel between the two politicians.

Speaking earlier this week on his former strategist David Axelrod's "Axes Files" podcast, Obama called O'Rourke "awesome young man".

"The reason I was able to connect with a significant part of the country was because people thought I said what I meant," Obama said in response. to a Democratic donor claiming that Mr. O. Rourke was "Obama, but white." "" We have a number of people who think about the race and who, I think, fall into that same category. "

According to a recent survey conducted by Politico and Morning Consult of candidates in the Democratic presidential election by 2020, O'Rourke already ranks third behind former vice president Joe Biden and the senator Vermont Bernie Sanders. In addition to these three people, a number of candidates are considering running for president, including La Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, California's Kamala Harris and Cory Booker of New Jersey.

During the election campaign, O'Rourke promised at the beginning of the year that if he lost to Cruz, he would come back to represent his district of Texas and not think of running for president.

But his supporters and detractors have been looking for signs that this might not be the case.

In a recent Medium article, O'Rourke spoke of a cold jog he took in Washington DC, but the article quickly turned away from the race in the streets of the capital to turn more toward the presidency. One part in particular, where he quotes Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural speech, is the one that has most fanned the flames.

"With malice towards no one, with charity for all, with firmness in the right that God gives us to see the right, let us strive to complete the work in which we are, to heal the wounds of the nation … ", quote O. Louke Lincoln in the post.

Betomania may be sweeping the Democratic circles of the country, but not everyone gets on the bandwagon. This is particularly true in what will be a crowded area where mega-donors seek to place their money with the best candidate.

"It's naïve, it's political suicide," one group told Politico for backing one candidate earlier than the other.

Others, however, consider O 'Rourke as the perfect flagship to face Trump during the run up to 2020, as he could well bring the two sides closer to the divided Democratic Party: he is appealing to the older crowd and can raise huge sums of money, while also exciting the younger progressive base of the party.

"People across the country have fallen in love with him," Christian Archer, a Democratic strategist based in San Antonio, told Politico. "He has been able to raise funds at the national level, which is such a distinct advantage."

Archer however warned that "There is a problem with this, and the question is how long it will last if it does not make a move in a window of time."