Beto O'Rourke's road trip drives home his message

His musings might be mocked but he’s generating a torrent of media coverage.

By DAVID SIDERS 01/19/2019 06:54 AM EST

Beto O’Rourke is five states into his stream-of-consciousness road trip across the American Southwest, unaccompanied as he drops into a small-town diner for cobbler, washes his face in a lake and journals about the need to “clear my head.”

All of which is unfolding as the rest of the Democratic presidential field has broken into a sprint — Elizabeth Warren to New Hampshire, Kirsten Gillibrand to Iowa, and Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker to South Carolina.

O’Rourke’s potential rivals are courting donors, assembling staffs and scurrying to early primary states, while the former Texas congressman is at the Pancake House in Liberal, Kansas, some 500 miles from Des Moines.

His absence from the fray has been noted — and his introspective writing style has been mocked. But amid much snickering, there is also evidence to suggest that if he does run for president, it could help him politically, advancing his off-beat brand.

“Beto is able to drive his own message," said Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign manager. In a political environment where “the person is the message,” Mook said, “what makes him snacky for [the media] inevitably makes him refreshing and different for voters ... The press writes about what Beto decides to do on his own, not in the context of Trump. That's a big deal."

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/19/beto-road-trip-2020-elections-1115663