Harry Reid Told Robert ‘Beto’ O’Rourke He Should Have Run for Senate in 2020

Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke that he should have run for Senate in 2020.

Reid told the New York Times over the weekend that O’Rourke came to his home and that he told the presidential hopeful he should have run for Senate against Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn instead.

O’Rourke lost a bid for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in 2018. The red state race saw the Democrat come within just a few percentage points of Republican Cruz on election day. 

The Times specifically asked Reid, “How concerned are you about the recruitment challenges that Democrats have had so far this year for 2020? Is the issue that folks just don’t want to serve in today’s Congress?”

“I think that there’s a feeling that the Senate is not — is not dignified like it used to be,” he posited. “You know, we had Fritz Hollings, who just died. He was a person who personified what a person on the street would see in a senator: white hair, great voice, funny.” 

“It’s a shame that Beto O’Rourke — he came to see me at my home. I just lament he’s not running for the Senate,” Reid said.

Reid also regretted another Democrat didn’t decide to run for Senate, “I mean, it’s a shame that someone like [Montana Governor] Steve Bullock would not run for the Senate.”

O’Rourke has hovered in sixth and seventh place in Democrat presidential primary polling with a mere two to five percent support throughout the first half of May, according to those posted at RealClearPolitics. Former Vice President Joe Biden, lauded by Reid in the interview, remains in a commanding lead over opponents for the 2020 Democrat nomination.

Michelle Moons is a White House Correspondent for Breitbart News — follow on Twitter @MichelleDiana and Facebook