Beto O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, has not yet said if he will run for president. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Elections ‘Draft Beto’ effort builds momentum

Beto O’Rourke is getting a significant lift in the early nominating states of South Carolina and Nevada, with operatives in both states joining an effort to draft O’Rourke into the presidential campaign.

Boyd Brown, a former South Carolina lawmaker and former Democratic National Committee member, told POLITICO on Monday that he will become national senior adviser to a “Draft Beto” campaign.


Meanwhile, the group was expected later Monday to announce the hiring of political consultant Michael Soneff as Nevada state director. Soneff served as a communications adviser to the Nevada State Democratic Party during the 2018 midterm elections and was deputy chief of staff to Rep. Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.).

Tyler Jones, who worked as a chief strategist for Joe Cunningham’s stunning upset victory in a congressional race last year, will be the group’s South Carolina state director, and officials said they are interviewing strategists in Iowa and New Hampshire, as well.

Brown, a former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, served as state chairman of Martin O’Malley’s presidential campaign in 2016. The former Maryland governor announced last week that he will not run for president again in 2020, endorsing O’Rourke.

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Brown called O’Rourke “a rock star,” comparing him to Robert F. Kennedy and his brother John F. Kennedy.

“When a once in a generation politician comes along, you’ve got to support him,” Brown said.

O’Rourke, a former Texas congressman, has not yet said if he will run for president. And unlike more established Democrats, he has done little to prepare infrastructure for a presidential campaign.

But O’Rourke is widely viewed as capable of amassing millions of dollars quickly, coming off a Senate campaign in which he raised more than $80 million, mostly from a national network of small donors. O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in a heavily Republican state catapulted him to the top tier of 2020 contenders. He is now polling near the top of the Democratic field, behind only former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The “Draft Beto” effort, the most prominent of several similar draft campaigns, is aiming to raise $1 million for O’Rourke. Organizers have set up an ActBlue escrow account to transfer money to O’Rourke’s presidential campaign if he announces one. The group would also provide O’Rourke with its email list and social media accounts if he runs.

“I have made my bones in South Carolina politics talking about the need for new leadership, the need for new ideas, talking about a bigger vision for South Carolina, and that’s transferable to a bigger vision for America,” Brown said. “We’ve seen what dark and divisive politics have done in this country for the past several years. It’s time to move past that.”

He said of O’Rourke, “It’s been refreshing to watch his meteoric rise, and I want to be a part of it. I look at the broader field, and nobody else really gets me excited, and this one does.”