It wasn’t so long ago when Beto O’Rourke, the punk-rock band member and three-term congressman from West Texas, was the man to beat. O’Rourke was the energetic, dashing politician who looked like a Kennedy and talked like a Kennedy. He may have lost his Senate campaign to the incumbent Ted Cruz, but he made history by scooping up over £64m ($80m) in fundraising in the process. His three-percentage point loss was the closest a Democrat in Texas came to winning a state-wide race in over 25 years.
Beto is learning, however, that running a national campaign for president is a different animal—and that viral moments and smooth oratory on countertops will only get you so far.
O’Rourke has a big problem, and he knows it. The latest fundraising figures are abysmal; £2.9m ($3.6m) may sound like a lot of money, but it is peanuts in presidential politics.
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