'He was willing to be tough': Beto supporters brace for 2020 brawl

[DonViejo]

O'Rourke's supporters point to his 2012 run for Congress as evidence that he can hold his own in a rough presidential primary.

By DAVID SIDERS 12/17/2018 05:06 AM EST

EL PASO, Texas – Beto O’Rourke says he hasn’t decided yet if he will run for president. But here in his hometown, his supporters are bracing for a combative primary. And they point to a previous campaign — his 2012 run for Congress — as evidence that he can hold his own in an intraparty brawl.

Six years before the high-minded Texas Senate run that lifted his national star, O’Rourke felled an eight-term incumbent House Democrat, Silvestre Reyes, casting him as ineffectual and unethical in a bruising primary campaign. The race pit O’Rourke not only against Reyes, but then-President Barack Obama, who endorsed the sitting congressman, and former President Bill Clinton, who campaigned for Reyes in the West Texas border district. In a stunning result, O’Rourke went to Congress, while Reyes became the only Texas incumbent to fail to win re-nomination that election year.

Among Democrats in El Paso, the race laid bare a rare asset for a Democratic presidential contender: the ability to cut at his opposition, while simultaneously carrying the flush of an idealist.

Knocking on thousands of doors in 2012 – a precursor to his tireless trek across Texas in 2018 – O’Rourke, then a former city councilman, highlighted reports that his fellow Democrat Reyes used campaign funds to pay family members. And he blamed him for long wait times at border crossings from Juárez, Mexico.

“He hit Reyes,” said Steve Ortega, a friend of O’Rourke who served on the El Paso city council with him. “Reyes hit him as well. They went after each other. He wasn’t bashful about exposing some of the negative things that Reyes had done.”

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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/17/beto-orourke-2020-election-democratic-primary-1061889

[Gothmog]

1. I think that Beto would be a viable nominee

[WeekiWater]

2. This is just too over the top.

"Beto supporters brace for 2020 brawl"

Bracing for something that won't be known for a little bit and might not ever happen. This is the media ginning up a fight and people will fall for it.