Beto O’Rourke announced the end of his presidential campaign Friday evening. He ended his campaign polling at 2 percent.
“Our campaign has always been about seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively. In that spirit: I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee,” O’Rourke tweeted.
Our campaign has always been about seeing clearly, speaking honestly, and acting decisively.
In that spirit: I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee. https://t.co/8jrBPGuX4t
— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) November 1, 2019
During a Twitter livestream after his announcement, O’Rourke pledged to support whichever Democratic candidate wins the nomination.
O’Rourke continued by reminding voters of the top issues he believes Democrats are concerned with: gun violence, dismantling structural racism, and combatting climate change. A 2019 Gallup poll, however, shows voters don’t have any of those issues on the top of their minds.
The top three issues voters actually care about most are health care, the economy, and immigration.
Maybe O’Rourke’s out-of-touch, virtue-signaling philosophy is what led to his campaign’s demise. After all, this is the same man that told every gun owner in America he would take away their semi-automatic guns.
“Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15,” O’Rourke said during the September Democratic debates.
Although O’Rourke secured his spot in the September and October debates, he had yet to qualify for the fifth Democratic debate in November prior to ending his campaign. He had 13 days to qualify by garnering 165,000 unique donations and polling at 3 percent in at least four polls, a situation which seemed unlikely.
Even if O’Rourke had stayed in the race, it would have been self-defeating to continue running a campaign without staying in the public eye on the national debate stage. O’Rourke will not be missed, but his decision to end his campaign was his only move.
