Beto O'Rourke tells Oprah Winfrey he'll decide on whether he's running for president by end of February
- Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas acknowledged he is mulling a presidential run in 2020 during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.
- O'Rourke said he will have to be on the same page as his family before making a final decision.
- Draft organizations have already started bolstering a potential run by O'Rourke by holding events across the country and in early primary states.
Former Rep. Beto O'Rourke of Texas acknowledged he is contemplating a run for president of the United States in 2020 on Tuesday.
During an interview with television mogul Oprah Winfrey at the PlayStation Theater in New York, O'Rourke said he is mulling a presidential bid, but needs to figure out how it would affect his family before jumping in the increasingly crowded field of candidates.
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"I am so excited about the prospect of being able to play that role," O'Rourke told Winfrey, noting he wants his entire family to "be on the same page" about a potential White House bid. O'Rourke added that he will make the decision by the end of February.
"Going forward, all I know after that trip and after thinking and talking to my wife, Amy, who's here with me, is we want to play as great a role as possible in making sure that this country lives up to our expectations, to the promise, to the potential that we all know," he said.
O'Rourke also noted that his unsuccessful 2018 Senate campaign against Republican incumbent Ted Cruz was hard on his family, particularly his oldest son.
O'Rourke told Winfrey he "felt a profound disappointment in myself that I had let so many people down" after losing to Cruz. Addressing the road trip he embarked on after losing his Senate bid, O'Rourke told Winfrey, "I had to be moving, I had to be meeting people."
"It's just how I think, how I find the next step," he added. "I just truly emerged out of this by being with people."
Meanwhile, as O'Rourke further contemplates a presidential campaign, groups attempting to bolster the potential run have already begun organizing.
"Draft Beto," a PAC aimed at organizing a grassroots movement on his behalf, announced on Tuesday a slew of events to gin up support for O'Rourke in a handful of cities across the country, including early primary states like Nevada, Iowa, and California.