All Beto, All Day, Every Day. In March 2019, O'Rourke announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in 2020. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012 after defeating incumbent Silvestre Reyes in a Democratic primary. Instead of seeking re-election in 2018, he ran for U.S. Senate, nearly staging an upset of Republican incumbent Senator Ted Cruz.