Legally, Beto O'Rourke Can Run for President and Senate in 2020

[TexasTowelie]

Congressman Beto O’Rourke has risen to superstar status. He is now widely known by a single name—Beto—like Prince, or Cher, or Elvis. Enthused by Beto’s near miss against Cruz, Democrats in Texas and around the country are urging Beto to run for president in 2020, egged on by a news media hungry for ratings, sales, and social media clicks. Beto’s media presence is even eclipsing the one Texan poised to seek the Democratic presidential nomination: former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. Along with his congressman brother, Joaquin, Julian Castro not so long ago was touted as the youthful Hispanic future of Texas. Who better to lead the state’s Democrats out of the Republican wilderness of the past two decades than one of the Castro brothers? But in the afterglow of this year’s election, “The Castro Brothers” sounds more like a reality TV show about flipping houses than about flipping the partisan tilt of Texas. Beto now is the guy who can fill the arena.

During the election, Beto was adamant that he would not run for president. If he lost the Senate race, he said, he just wanted to go home and spend time with Amy and his children Ulysses, Molly, and Henry. Any decision on challenging Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn in 2020 would also have to wait. Then this week Beto cracked the door on a possible presidential run by no longer ruling it out.

When I first started contemplating this article, my idea was that if Beto wanted to help the Democrats retake the White House, he probably would better serve his party by running for Senate against Cornyn to put Texas into play. Texas has not gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976. In no small part, that’s because national Democrats have refused to spend money on Texas. If Texas with its 38 Electoral College votes had gone for Hillary Clinton in 2016, she would have won the presidency just with the states she actually carried. Her campaign spent $100,000 in Texas. On the other hand, Beto raised $70 million for his Senate race against Cruz. A viable Democrat challenging Cornyn easily could put the state’s electoral votes into the kill zone for a dynamic Democratic presidential candidate.

Then I thought: Why doesn’t Beto run for both the presidency AND the U.S. Senate?

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/technically-beto-orourke-can-run-president-senate-2020/

[Gothmog]

1. Yeah for the Johnson amendment

We used this to let LBJ run for VP and Senate at the same time

[hedda_foil]

2. Think about what would happen if he were to win both races.

He can't serve as both President and Senator, so he'd have to relinquish the Senate seat. The governor of Texas would then be able to name his replacement for the full 6 year term. The governor in 2020 will still be Republican Greg Abbott, who won reelection a month ago. Abbott will name a Republican to replace President O'Rourke.

Of course Beto could lose both seats or win only one of them, which would avoid this complication, but the risk is too great for me to want him to run for both offices in 2020.

Moreover, should he run for both Senate and President, Trump would be able to hit him with "chicken liddle Beto knows he can't beat my glorious self so he's running for Senate too. Chicken Liddle Beto is running scared. SAD! And he'd probably pull off reelection with this because that would be exactly how it would look to most voters.

SAD.

[MichMan]

3. I guess legally he could, but how does one campaign for both at the same time?