https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/us/politics/beto-o-rourke-president.html
This morning former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke has announced the will join the presidential campaign race. After nearly missing and losing the Senate race, he is hoping that his broad message of national unity and generational change will lift him above a slate of committed progressives offering big-ticket policy ideas. His first stop was Iowa on Thursday morning, introducing himself to a new state he hasn’t been to before. His sudden announcement to run has made a lot of noise, and he has even gotten the attention of President Trump. A long journey is ahead of him, as he joins 14 other candidates for the Democratic party including the likes of Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders. While there are many questions about his tools and ability to run a successful campaign, the question is, does he have what it takes to win the presidential race and get over all his candidates?
Questions:
Do you think his loss in the Senate race will hurt his Presidential race?
Do you agree with his ideals?
Do you think despite his campaign disadvantages, O’Rourke has a chance to win?
I don't think that his loss in the senate race will really change his possibilities in the presidency race, because it's Texas. Any liberal candidate running for the whole of Texas would be incredibly unlikely to succeed, so him even being a legitimate contender speaks to the power of his message. I think running on a set of ideals is an interesting strategy, and his ideals of pro-immigration progress for America is one I support, although knowing more of his concrete plans would be appreciated, considering how poorly the last president who ran as a ideologue has performed. I think that O'Rourke has limited capacity to win anything major, because he's relatively young and inexperienced, and his strategy of meeting as an individual with people might not scale well to the whole world. He might also spark a lot of controversy, because he's less structured than his competitors, and one wrong remark could mean disaster.
ReplyDeleteAs O'Rourke narrowly lost against Ted Cruz in Texas during the Senate race, I think that he has a chance to win as he has supporters from those in Texas. He will definitely have to work with campaigning to get into the league of Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders, but he definitely has a chance. Many articles criticize O'Rourke for running in a party that is supported by minorities and women, yet O'Rourke himself is considered to be apart of the white privilege, so it will be difficult for him to gain votes from the majority of these voters. I think what O'Rourke needs to do in order to increase his chances of getting his name into the election is to define his policy views because it seems like a lot of people are confused about where he stands in the scheme of democrats and progressives.
ReplyDeleteI do think that O’Rourke’s loss in the Senate race will hurt his chances at becoming president. Since he was not elected, many people not from Texas will not know him or be familiar with his name. Therefore, they will be unaware of his ideologies and political platform which would lead to a lack of support for his candidacy. For instance, I do not know much about O’Rourke but if he was to win the Senate race, I would be able to be exposed to his platform and learn more about his ideals. His general platform of achieving national unity and generational change seems naive, and although I agree with it, it is most likely never going to happen. Conflict is continuous but peace is not, and this has always been exemplified through the US. Nevertheless, I think that O’Rourke does not have a chance to win because I believe that a majority of the Democratic supporters will vote for Harris or Sanders. Therefore, unknown candidates like O’Rourke are put at a major disadvantage which drastically decreases his chances at winning the race.
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