Beto O’Rourke jumps into US presidential race
Former punk rocker to challenge for Democratic nomination to fight the 2020 election
El Paso — Beto O’Rourke, the youthful Texan who gained a national following with his long-shot election battle against US Senator Ted Cruz in 2018, has launched a bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The 46-year-old O’Rourke, a former three-term US congressman and a punk rocker in his youth, pledged to tackle “the interconnected crises in our economy, our democracy and our climate”. “This moment of peril produces, perhaps, the greatest moment of promise for this country,” he said in an online video. O’Rourke followed his announcement with a trip to Iowa, the Midwestern farm state that will hold the first Democratic nominating contest in February 2020. Greeted by cheers at his first stop in Keokuk, Iowa, he told his audience: "It is a huge, huge honour to be here with you." O’Rourke outlined challenges facing the US, from immigration to climate change, saying, “the foundational challenge to get all of this done, is to fix our democracy”. In running for president, O’Ro...
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