O’Rourke ‘very likely’ will endorse Democrat in Texas House race

Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke said in a Wednesday interview with CBS News that he is “very likely” to support the Democratic challenger to his friend Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas) after declining to do so in 2018. 

O’Rourke, who did not endorse Democratic challenger Gina Ortiz Jones in 2018 when he was running for the Senate in Texas, said that if she is the nominee again, he will support her. 

{mosads}“I will very likely support the nominee in that race. I’m a big fan of Gina,” O’Rourke said. “She may have other competition so I don’t want to put my thumb on the scale in that intraparty race, but should she be the nominee, I will be supporting her.” 

“We need to maintain the majority, increase it if we can, in the House of Representatives,” the former Texas congressman added.

He noted that things are different for him now that he is not a House member. 

“It’s a little bit of a different scenario for me now. I’m no longer a member of the House,” he said. “I no longer have a day-to-day working relationship with colleagues and friends and Will Hurd is a very good friend across the aisle.”

Hurd defeated Ortiz Jones by 926 votes in 2018. She announced last month that she would run against him again in 2020 and faces former Russia Today anchor Liz Wahl in the Democratic primary.

O’Rourke is among more than two dozen people vying for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.