Beto O'Rourke refuses to rule out running against Trump in 2020 presidential election

Beto O’Rourke has refused to rule himself out of a 2020 presidential bid, reversing his earlier insistence he would not seek the Democratic nomination.

During a town hall in his native El Paso on Monday, the Texas congressman was asked if he was considering a presidential run, to which he said he was focused on spending time with his wife Amy and three children, and finishing his term in congress, which ends in January.

“And then, Amy and I will think about what we can do next to contribute to the best of our ability to this community,” Mr O’Rourke said, before grinning at his wife in the crowd and asking: “How was that? Was that OK?”

Speaking to reporters after the event, the 46-year-old admitted his answer had changed since his narrow midterms defeat earlier this month to incumbent Texas senator Ted Cruz.

“Now that that is no longer possible, we’re thinking through a number of things and Amy and I made a decision not to rule anything out,” Mr O’Rourke said.

“The best advice I received from people who’ve run for, and won – and run for, and lost – elections like this, is don’t make any decisions about anything until you’ve had some time to hang with your family and just be human. And so I am following that advice.”

The congressman is third favourite with bookmakers to win the 2020 presidential election, and second favourite – behind California senator Kamala Harris – to win the Democratic nomination.

Donald Trump is favourite to hold onto the presidency, while Mr O’Rourke is followed by Democrats Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden – all of whom have refused to rule themselves out of the race – in the bookies’ standings.

Mr O’Rourke left many progressives swooning during the midterms by building a grassroots movement that refused PAC money and raised record funds through hundreds of thousands of small donations.

His charismatic speeches on the campaign trail also brought him to national attention, with one answer to a question about NFL players kneeling for the national anthem being viewed millions of times on social media.

He lost by just three points to Mr Cruz in deep red Texas, further raising hopes among supporters he would run in 2020.

“He’s got the charisma, he’s from a red state, which means he can pick up voters in non-traditional parts of America for Democrats, he would made Texas competitive – that would be an earthquake for the electoral college,” Brian Klaas, a political scientist and US election specialist at University College London, told The Independent earlier this month.

Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama, said on Monday he had never seen a senate candidate “inspire the sort of enthusiasm that Beto did in his race”, including Mr Obama in 2004.

“The enthusiasm is real and matters. If Beto were to go to Iowa City next week, I am confident he would draw a crowd three times larger than any candidate has since Obama first stumped there,” Mr Pfeiffer wrote in an op-ed for Crooked Media.

“I want you to be president,” one supporter told Mr O’Rourke at the town hall, to which the congressman smiled and quickly changed the subject.