Beto Is Running (Raising The Number To 15 Candidates)

Former Texas representative Beto O'Rourke made it official on Thursday morning. He is officially running for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party in 2020.

He joins 14 other candidates -- Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kristen Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, John Hickenlooper, Pete Buttigieg, John Delaney, Andrew Yang, Marianne Williamson, Tulsi Gabbard, and Bernie Sanders.

Here is the e-mail Beto sent to Democrats:

I write to ask you to join me in a campaign to serve this country as the next President of the United States.

At this moment of truth — at this moment where we could make or break our democracy, where we will decide the fate of generations to come on this planet — we must all ask what each of us can give to this country and to the people who will inherit the consequences of our choices.

Amy and I have decided that running to serve America as president is the best way for us to do our part, understanding that we have an historic opportunity to join with millions of our fellow Americans at a time like no other.

The challenges we face are the greatest in living memory. The connected crises in our economy, our democracy and our climate will either consume us or they will afford us the opportunity to demonstrate our resolve, our creativity and our courage.

In other words, this moment of peril produces what is perhaps our greatest moment of promise. We can have a government that serves people instead of corporations. We can invest in the dignity of those working and those seeking work, no matter their gender, race or background. We can guarantee high quality health care to every single American. We can remind ourselves that if immigration is a problem, it’s a great one to have, and ensure that we create lawful paths to enter the country to work, to join family, to flee persecution. We can achieve real justice reform and confront the hard truths of slavery, segregation and suppression. We can listen to and lift up rural communities. We can restore American leadership, find peaceful solutions to global challenges, and end decades-long wars while delivering for every woman and man who has served in them. And we can unleash the ingenuity and political will of millions of Americans to meet the existential threat of climate change before it’s too late.

No one candidate or president, no matter how tough or talented or experienced, can meet these challenges on their own. Only this country can do that, and only if we build a movement that includes all of us – not just to vote and volunteer, but to understand that for democracy to flourish and meet these challenges, it is an everyday responsibility, one that doesn’t end when the ballots are counted.

We saw the truth of that in Texas over the last two years - people from all walks of life, every part of the state, coming together in record numbers, creating something greater and more powerful than the sum of the people involved. I saw firsthand how the purpose and function that we all crave can be found in serving others and serving this country.

This campaign will be positive.  We will define ourselves by what we want to achieve and accomplish for America.  It will be animated by an ambition for the country that recognizes that the challenges we face will only be overcome by lifting each other up; that the opportunities before us will only be realized by overcoming the differences between us — of party, of geography, of race, of gender, of faith — before they define us forever.

We seek the Democratic nomination by listening to and learning from the people we wish to serve. We are running a campaign for everyone. That’s why, wherever you are in the United States — from Alaska to Puerto Rico — I want you to be part of this. I want this to be your campaign. A campaign by all of us for all of us.

In the coming days I will travel to introduce myself to my fellow Americans and to listen to the people I meet. In those conversations I want to discuss how we can bring the power and ingenuity of the American people to bear on the challenges we face.

On March 30th we will officially kick off this campaign in my hometown of El Paso. I want you to be there with me then if you can. I’m also asking you to help organize others in your community to make sure that we build the greatest grassroots campaign this country has ever seen. No PACs, just people.

There’s more to come, but I want to leave you with this:

The only way to live up to the promise of this country at this moment of maximum peril and maximum potential is to give it our all and to give it for all of us. We are now, more than ever, the last best hope of Earth. Let’s show ourselves and those who succeed us in this great country what we are made of and what we can do.

If you are ready to be part of this effort, please make a donation to help us kick off our campaign the right way.

Beto