"While I will not be running in 2020, I would like to put my faith and trust in a fearless American future," former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley wrote. | AP Photo/Patrick Semansky 2020 O'Malley says he won't run for president, endorses O'Rourke

Former Maryland governor and Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley shot down speculation that he would run for president again in 2020, instead saying he hoped Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke would throw his hat in the ring.

The former longshot candidate laid out his reasons for endorsing O’Rourke in an op-ed in the Des Moines Register published Thursday, calling his failed Senate campaign “a disciplined and principled campaign that also managed to be raw, authentic, and real” and promoting O’Rourke, a former Democratic congressman from El Paso, Texas, as part of a “new generation” of leaders that can unify and heal the country.


O’Malley acknowledged that voters in 2016 may have been angry when they elected Donald Trump as president. But "there is a different mood in our nation" than there was in 2016, he argued, writing that he has seen an appetite for "a unifier and a healer" and "a leader of principle."

O’Rourke has become a darling of the political left over the past year, buoyed by his upstart campaign and narrow defeat against GOP Sen. Ted Cruz in November’s midterms. Though he's said he has not decided whether to run for president, O’Rourke has polled near the top of the pack in what is expected to be an extremely crowded Democratic 2020 field.

O’Rourke’s progressive platform and perspectives as a border state lawmaker make him ideal for the moment, O’Malley wrote in his op-ed, adding that the former Texas congressman's values — and his performance in a historically red state in spite of them — “tell us where America is headed.”

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“While I will not be running in 2020, I would like to put my faith and trust in a fearless American future,” O’Malley wrote.

“And, I believe the new leader who can best bring us together and turn us around to create that better American future, is Beto O’Rourke.”

O’Malley made no mention in his op-ed of the other Democrats rumored to be plotting a bid to unseat Trump, including one of his former 2016 competitors, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), nor did he mention any of the Democrats who have already thrown their hat in the ring, like Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.).