News Roundup: Beto O’Rourke Says He Isn’t Ruling Anything Out When It Comes To Running In 2020

Our daily look at Texas headlines.

By Alexandra HartNovember 27, 2018 3:31 pm

The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.

After originally saying a 2020 presidential run was not in the cards, Beto O’Rourke now says he isn’t ruling out the possibility. During his Senate race against Ted Cruz, the three-term Democratic congressman bluntly said he wasn’t eyeing the White House.

Here he is speaking with “60 Minutes”‘ Jon Wertheim on Nov. 4:

“I’m not looking at 2020. And in fact, am completely ruling that out. Not going to do that. …Win or lose I’m not going to run in 2020.”

But O’Rourke has since changed his tune. Monday, during a town hall meeting in his hometown of El Paso, O’Rourke fielded questions about his plans. He said he was focusing on his family and his constituents.

“Making sure that I deliver everything I can to the people I represent until the third of January, and then Amy and I will think about what we can do next to contribute, to the best of our ability, to this community,” O’Rourke said.

Speaking with reporters afterward, he further clarified that he and his wife “made a decision not to rule anything out.”




Meanwhile in Aggieland, Texas A&M University fans’ raucous on-field celebration of their football team’s 74-72 victory over Louisiana State University is going to cost the school a lot of money. The Southeastern Conference has slapped the Aggies with a $50,000 fine because fans streamed onto the field following Saturday’s record-breaking game.

In a statement Monday, the SEC said the field invasion violated its competition-area policy. The conference also said it was looking into a post-game scuffle between an LSU staffer and a credentialed member who was standing on the A&M sideline.




Former University of Texas head football coach Mack Brown is getting back into the coaching game. On Tuesday, the University of North Carolina officially announced it’s hiring Brown to be the Tar Heels’ next head coach. Brown coached there for 10 seasons before coming to UT-Austin. He gave current Longhorn coach Tom Herman a job as a graduate assistant in the late 1990s; the two have maintained ties.

“He’s been extremely instrumental, in terms of providing a great sounding board for me, not just on head-coaching things but on being the head coach at Texas, and the challenges that that presents itself,” Herman said of Brown to KUT News in Austin.

Brown won a national title while at Texas in 2005, and was responsible for the team’s last Big 12 Championship win in 2009.

He left Texas in 2013 and got into sports broadcasting. He’s currently a college football analyst for ESPN.

Meanwhile, the Longhorns will have a shot at another conference title on Saturday against Oklahoma – their first chance under Tom Herman.