DALLAS — During a pre-recorded interview with Oprah Winfrey that aired on the OWN Network that aired on primetime Saturday, Beto O'Rourke explained he's seriously considering a run for the White House.
"I have been thinking about running for president," O’Rourke said.
Later in the conversation, recorded live in front of a New York audience, Winfrey asked, “Will you be running?"
"That's a big question for us to think through," O’Rourke responded.
O'Rourke, a former Democratic congressman from El Paso, quickly became a rising star of the Democratic Party. His 2018 campaign to unseat Republican Ted Cruz in the U.S. Senate put him on the map — a race he lost by a narrow margin.
Beto is jobless for now, and many predict he'll join a crowded field of Democrats in 2020.
"Can I be part of bringing people together in a deeply divided country? Around things that we agree are common, can we have a common conception of what it is to be American — to serve, to sacrifice, to seek to achieve something far greater than anyone of us or what we will see over the course of our lifetime?" was a question O’Rourke posed to Winfrey during the interview.
Just last week, O'Rourke was back in El Paso. He was speaking out at a rally against funding the border wall — a rally staged while President Donald Trump was in town to promote the wall.
If O'Rourke does decide to run, he won't be the only Texan in the race. Former San Antonio mayor Julián Castro already announced his intentions in January.
As for O'Rourke, he told Oprah he's still considering a presidential bid if it's the right move for his family and for the country.
But if he does, he'll face fierce competition in a crowded group of Democrats that only continues to grow.