Did Trump jump-start a Beto O'Rourke campaign for president?

Ostensibly, President Donald Trump came to the El Paso County Coliseum on Monday night to rally support for building a wall, or fence, like that what separates El Paso from Ciudad Juárez along a longer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border. But it was readily apparent throughout Trump’s stemwinder that he also came in hopes of burying former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s potential presidential campaign before it has a chance to get off the ground.

If so, that strategy appears to have backfired.

O’Rourke, who has been out of the national political spotlight since his close-call loss to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, suddenly was sharing a split screen in national coverage with the president. O’Rourke, speaking at an outdoor counterrally a few hundred yards away, was retesting his hopeful message that resonated with Texas voters three months ago, while Trump was belittling O’Rourke.

“I think that this was the debut on the national stage for Beto O’Rourke, and I would be very surprised if he is not running for president,” Jim Messina, who managed President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, said Tuesday on MSNBC.

“My view is that I’m not sure that Beto O’Rourke needed any kind of jump-start, but it seems to have given him one,” said Matt Angle, a Washington, D.C.-based Democratic strategist who heads the Lone Star Project. “I’ve gotten calls all morning from people who again want to know how you get in touch with Beto O’Rourke.”

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190212/did-trump-jump-start-beto-orourke-campaign-for-president