Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke appeared poised to announce his long-anticipated run for the presidency, telling a national magazine that “I’m just born to be in it.”
O’Rourke, an El Paso-area lawmaker who put a scare into incumbent GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in the November elections, appears on the cover of the April issue of Vanity Fair standing on a dirt road in the desert in his home state.
“I want to be in it. man, I’m just born to be in it,” he is quoted as saying on the cover, which was shot by famed photographer Annie Liebovitz.
“Man, I’m just born to be in it.” Beto O’Rourke seemed to come from nowhere to the brink of a presidential candidacy—but he’s been on this journey for his whole life. O’Rourke spoke with Joe Hagan. Photographs by Annie Leibovitz. https://t.co/WhmQGZnbUg pic.twitter.com/a7DCoaZdtd
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 13, 2019
If he actually runs, O’Rourke will likely face a crowded Democratic primary field.
Declared or likely candidates include Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Corey Booker of New Jersey, among others.
O’Rourke, a critic of President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policies, has been linked to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party in the mold of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
He calls the 2020 presidential election “the fight of our lives as Americans, and as humans, I’d argue” in the article, adding that he wants “to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment.”
Several reports said that O’Rourke’s volunteers from his Senate run had been contacted and urged to be ready to get back to work.
