Beto O’Rourke drops out of 2020 presidential race

Beto O’Rourke has ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

The former Texas congressman made the announcement on Friday in a series of tweets, saying, “I am announcing that my service to the country will not be as a candidate or as the nominee.”

I am grateful to all the people who made up the heart and soul of this campaign. You were among the hundreds of thousands who made a donation, signed up to volunteer or spread the word about this campaign and our opportunity to help decide the election of our lifetime.

— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) November 1, 2019

We will work to ensure that the Democratic nominee is successful in defeating Donald Trump in 2020. I can tell you firsthand from having the chance to know the candidates, we will be well served by any one of them, and I’m going to be proud to support whoever she or he is.

— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) November 1, 2019

Thank you for making this campaign possible, and for continuing to believe that we can turn this moment of great peril into a moment of great promise for America and the world.

— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) November 1, 2019

Despite several campaign resets and an impressive fundraising haul of $6.1 million in the first 24 hours following announcing his White House run, the former Texas congressman failed to capture the excitement that surrounded his 2018 Senate race.

While that effort to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz failed, O’Rourke, 46, became a media darling and set the record for receiving most votes by a Democrat in state history.

O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Cruz set the tone for his presidential campaign, where he argued that he could compete in states traditionally held by Republicans. Yet O’Rourke failed to ever gain significant momentum and consistently polled with 1-2% in primary polls.

During his presidential campaign, O’Rourke ruled out another Senate run. From 2013 to 2019, O’Rourke served as a congressman for Texas’s 16th Congressional District.