O’Malley Won’t Run for President, Says He Wants Beto O’Rourke Instead

(Bloomberg) -- Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who ran for president in 2016, says in a Des Moines Register op-ed and a letter to supporters that he won’t run for president again in 2020. Instead, he hopes that Beto O’Rourke will.

O’Malley says O’Rourke, the former congressman from El Paso who nearly toppled Republican Ted Cruz in his bid for the U.S. Senate in Texas, is “raw, authentic and real," a candidate who fits the political moment and can defeat President Donald Trump.

“People are looking for a new leader who can bring us together,” O’Malley writes. ”They are looking for a unifier and a healer. They are looking for a leader of principle.” They are looking, the former presidential candidate said, for Beto O’Rourke.

O’Rourke hasn’t announced what he plans to do, though is known to be actively considering a presidential bid. If he runs, he would be a formidable fundraiser having shattered campaign finance records in Texas, and seen as a top-tier Democratic candidate.

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