Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke addresses a canvassing kickoff event for Iowa state Senate candidate Eric Giddens in Waterloo, Iowa. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 2020 elections O’Rourke says he wouldn’t be running for president if he’d won Texas Senate race

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said Saturday if he had won his Texas Senate race against incumbent Ted Cruz he might not be “in Waterloo and Keokuk and all the other communities I’ve been in to run for president.”

“I was running to serve my state in the United States Senate, and I’d made that commitment that I was going to serve every one of the six years in that position of public trust,” O’Rourke told Chuck Todd of NBC’s “Meet the Press” in an interview set to air Sunday morning.


O’Rourke was in Waterloo, Iowa, on Saturday campaigning for Iowa Senate District 30 candidate Eric Giddens, whom O'Rourke said he would still be helping either way. He will also attend a house party Saturday night with John Murphy, who is seeking a second term as the Dubuque County recorder.

O’Rourke made his first campaign stop in Iowa after officially announcing his presidential bid Thursday after mulling the decision for months following his 2.5 percentage point loss in the Texas Senate race.

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“But I have an opportunity now to do something that I think the country badly needs,” O’Rourke said. “Or maybe I should put it this way, I get a chance to be part of something that the country badly needs and that is coming together at this very divided moment.”

Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney were also in Waterloo campaigning for Giddens.