Politico: “Nearly everything O’Rourke is doing — the non-stop tours, the crowds, the viral indignation — is reminiscent of his previous runs (though, to the relief of many Democrats, he appeared to take a more aggressive posture against Abbott than he initially did Cruz). The former congressman from El Paso also finds himself, once again, compelled to persuade voters that he still can win.
It’s not an unimportant case to make — significant to donors, volunteers and for keeping prospective voters enthused. And some people have already given up on him.
“You only have a certain amount of time to be the ‘It’ guy or ‘It’ girl or whatever it is, and then people start chipping away,” one major Democratic donor in the state told me. “Now he’s coming back for Round 3, and it’s like, can you really get that excited?”
He said, “Democrats are excited to get rid of Abbott, but the fact is there are more Republicans in the state still.”
O’Rourke, asked about the state of the race during an on-stage interview at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin in late September, offered the banal refrain of trailing candidates everywhere: “As anyone who’s asked this question whose polling is not where they want it to be would say, ‘The only poll that matters is the one that we take on Election Day.’”
But he also had a more incisive argument about his prospects and public opinion polls. Respectable surveys four years ago put O’Rourke behind Cruz by a much wider margin than he ultimately lost by, less than 3 percentage points.
He told reporters in Austin that voters are “just beginning to pay attention to this race,” and that while Abbott has been pummeling him on TV, he has only recently started to advertise.
“I think it’s still early,” said Marc Veasey, a Democratic congressman from Texas. “I think he’s got it.”
Julie Oliver, who twice ran unsuccessfully to flip a Republican-held House seat around Austin, said, “I think there’s never been a more opportune moment than now … I do, with my whole heart, believe he can win.”
This may be O’Rourke’s last chance. With his near-universal name recognition and an army of small donors, O’Rourke had widely been viewed in Texas as the Democrats’ best hope of defeating Abbott, and he had been lobbied heavily by Texas Democrats to get into the race. But given the conservative bent of the state, it was always going to be a longshot.”