Enough stalling. He's in.

Beto O’Rourke Enters the 2020 Presidential Campaign

MSNBC says he has rejected all labels and sometimes calls himself a centrist.

Not clear to me where he is on the AOC/Bernie agenda, but he says he favors the Green New Deal.

MSNBC also says the folks already lined up with Bernie absolutely hate Beto, and some have rather amusingly denounced him as a candidate of white privilege.

So say supporters of the rich old white guy who says he's a socialist.

The Turks at TYT say his voting record in his three terms was more conservative than 70% of the other Dems.

And he has bailed on Medicare for All.

And so probably not actually the guy to carry the AOC/Bernie agenda across the finish line.

Sure, better than any Republican and way better than Trump.

But the best in the field of a baker's dozen?

Beto O’Rourke, the 46-year-old former Texas congressman whose near-miss Senate run last year propelled him to Democratic stardom, announced on Thursday that he was running for president, betting that voters will prize his message of national unity and generational change in a 2020 primary teeming with committed progressives.

His decision jolts an early election season already stuffed with contenders, adding to the mix a relentless campaigner with a small-dollar fund-raising army, the performative instincts of a former punk rocker and a pro-immigrant vision to counteract President Trump’s.

. . . .

Early polls have shown Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders on top. Mr. O’Rourke, three decades their junior, hopes to supply an unsubtle contrast, particularly given Mr. Sanders’s success with the kinds of young voters who flocked to Mr. O’Rourke in Texas.

Where Beto O’Rourke Stands on the Issues

As President Trump’s proposed border wall has become one of the biggest issues in American politics, Mr. O’Rourke has made immigration the centerpiece of his speeches.

In addition to supporting the Dream Act and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, he has called for the closing of private immigrant detention centers, denounced the “militarization” of immigration enforcement and spoken out against the wall.

. . . .

The Republican-controlled Congress did not pass any gun control legislation then, but Mr. O’Rourke continues to support similar policies, including universal background checks, magazine size limits and restrictions on some semiautomatic weapons.

He also opposes concealed carry reciprocity, which would make concealed carry permits granted in any state valid nationwide, forcing states with strict licensing requirements to recognize permits from states with looser standards.

. . . .

In 2017, during his time in the House, he said unequivocally, “A single-payer ‘Medicare for all’ program is the best way to ensure all Americans get the health care they need.” 

But during his Senate campaign, he carefully avoided those words, calling instead for “universal, guaranteed, high-quality health care for all.”

He does support expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act and has urged Texas to do so. 

Other points in his 2018 platform included allowing the government to negotiate prescription drug prices with manufacturers and creating incentives for insurers to participate in the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges.

. . . .

He called for closing private and for-profit prisons, decriminalizing marijuana and expunging the records of people previously convicted of possessing it, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent crimes, and reforming the bail system so people charged with misdemeanors would not be incarcerated because of their inability to pay.

He also emphasized rehabilitation for offenders released from prison, including the restoration of voting rights. Currently, those rights vary drastically by state.

Like many of the Democratic candidates, Mr. O’Rourke has criticized Mr. Trump’s trade policies, including the imposition of tariffs, which have hurt some farmers and blue-collar workers. 

In his Senate campaign, he emphasized the needs of farmers, calling for a stronger crop insurance program and federal investments in rural infrastructure, including high-speed internet, roads and schools.

He has also drawn connections between agricultural policy and immigration policy, noting that immigrants — many of them undocumented — make up a large share of farm laborers. On that basis, he has cast immigration reform as an economic issue as well as a social one.