O’Rourke predicts Democrats ‘can win Texas’ away from Trump in 2020

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, said his party can win his home state in 2020.

“With Texas, we defeat Donald Trump but we also change the electoral landscape of the United States for ever after,” O’Rourke told MSNBC after Tuesday night’s debate. “This is how we begin to build the majority we need to pass this really ambitious legislation on health care or climate or immigration.”

{mosads}“We can put Texas in play, and furthermore, we can win Texas,” he told MSNBC reporters in a separate post-debate panel, Politico reports. 

Texas has not chosen a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976. But after O’Rourke’s close 2018 campaign against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the party views the state as one vehicle for the 2020 Democratic nominee to beat President Trump.

“The way that we put Texas in play is by going everywhere, writing nobody off, taking no one for granted. That’s how we defeat Donald Trump,” O’Rourke said. 

O’Rourke’s strategy of speaking to voters across the state, even in deep-red districts, was largely credited for almost winning statewide office in Texas as a Democrat. 

O’Rourke told MSNBC he “absolutely” will win the Texas “Super Tuesday” primary on March 3.  

“And then we win, more importantly, in November of 2020. That’s when it really counts,” O’Rourke added. 

O’Rourke is the leading 2020 Democrat among Texas primary voters, according to a University of Texas poll released Tuesday. O’Rourke had 27 percent support, a 3-point lead over former Vice President Joe Biden. His lead widened to 38 percent among primary voters including independent Democratic-leaners. 

O’Rourke also holds the strongest lead over Trump, at 48.8 to 37.6 percent, in a general election mock-up, based on the poll. 

Three other candidates, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), would defeat Trump by lesser margins, according to the poll.