Adding to the speculation that ObamaWorld is encouraging Beto O’Rourke’s potential Presidential run, President Obama met with Beto on November 16. FWIW, Obama has met with several potential 2020 candidates so one meeting isn’t an endorsement but it does seem to raise the probability that Beto is seriously considering running in 2020.
Obama also mentioned in a recent interview that O’Rourke reminds him of himself.
From the Washington Post:
Obama’s stated mission has been to build a new generation of Democratic leaders, and two weeks ago he said that O’Rourke, who is 46, reminded him of himself. The three-term congressman, he said, was one of the rare politicians who can connect with a wide swath of the electorate in an increasingly siloed country.
“The reason I was able to make a connection with a sizable portion of the country was because people had a sense that I said what I meant,” Obama said in an interview for “The Axe Files,” a podcast hosted by his former top strategist David Axelrod. “What I oftentimes am looking for first and foremost is, do you seem to mean it? Are you in this thing because you have a strong set of convictions that you are willing to risk things for?”
“What I liked most about his race was that it didn’t feel constantly poll-tested,” Obama added of O’Rourke. “It felt as if he based his statements and his positions on what he believed. And that, you’d like to think, is normally how things work. Sadly it’s not.”