O’Rourke’s announcement kicks off a third run for office in as many election cycles.<\/b>
\nBeto\u2019s back. Former Democratic presidential candidate Beto O\u2019Rourke announced on Monday he\u2019ll run to unseat Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in next year\u2019s elections. \u201cI want to serve this state and try to bring the people of Texas together to do some of the really big work that is before us,\u201d O\u2019Rourke told Texas Monthly magazine. \u201c(We need to) get past this smallness and divisiveness that Greg Abbott has brought to Texas.\u201d His announcement kicks off a third run for office in as many election cycles. The ex-congressman narrowly lost to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in 2018 in an impressive statewide debut that turned him into something of a liberal cult figure and a formidable grassroots fundraiser. But O\u2019Rourke,49, stumbled badly in the Democratic presidential primary campaign and dropped out before a single vote was cast. The perennial candidate showed off his trademark folksy self-deprecating sense of humor by admitting he took himself too seriously during his presidential run. \u201cSomebody put it to me this way: I wanted to run in the worst way \u2014 and I succeeded in that,\u201d he said. The mop-haired O\u2019Rourke ticked off a laundry list of policy disagreements with Abbott from abortion and voting rights to his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and last winter\u2019s catastrophic power failures in the Lone Star State. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t trust women to make their health care decisions, doesn\u2019t trust police chiefs when they tell him not to sign the permitless (gun) carry bill into law, he doesn\u2019t trust voters so he changes the rules of our elections, and he doesn\u2019t trust local communities,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said in a video announcing his run for the governor\u2019s mansion in Austin. O\u2019Rourke\u2019s return sets up one of 2022\u2032s highest-profile \u2014 and potentially most expensive \u2014 races for governor. Abbott, a Republican, is seeking a third term and has put Texas on the vanguard of hard-right policymaking in state capitals and emerged as a national figure. A challenge from O\u2019Rourke, a media-savvy former congressman with a record of generating attention and cash, could tempt Democrats nationwide to pour millions of dollars into trying \u2014 again \u2014 to flip Texas. O\u2019Rourke is the first well-known Democrat to jump into the race. Actor Matthew McConaughey has also mused about running for governor as a Democrat, but he\u2019s never run for office and it\u2019s not clear if he is serious. \u201cThis (won\u2019t) be much of a campaign if it\u2019s about me,\u201d he said. \u201cI think it really has to be about Texas. It has to be about all of us.\u201d With News Wire Services<\/p>\n