Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke said “it would be very difficult not to select a woman” as his running mate in 2020. | Scott Bauer/AP Photo 2020 Elections Beto: ‘We’d be very lucky’ to have Biden enter race

DUBUQUE, Iowa — The first time Beto O’Rourke praised Joe Biden, it could have been dismissed as an act of diplomacy.

“I don’t see why not,” the newly minted presidential candidate said Friday when asked outside a campaign stop in Washington, Iowa, whether he thought Biden should run for president. “I think he’s done an extraordinary job for this country as senator and as vice president. … I think very highly of him.”


Then it happened again, when an Iowan in Independence told O’Rourke, who is 46, that he wanted “to see some young people run for president” and would prefer that Biden — who has 30 years on O’Rourke — stay out.

O’Rourke could have let the comment hang in the air, but he came immediately to Biden’s defense. And Biden was still on his mind several hours later.

COUNTDOWN TO 2020 The race for 2020 starts now. Stay in the know. Follow our presidential election coverage. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Asked in Dubuque how Democratic candidates could “stay together … instead of attacking each other,” O’Rourke went directly — and unprompted — to Biden.

“We were at a meeting earlier today in Independence, Iowa, and someone stood up and they said, ‘I sure hope Vice President Biden doesn’t get in the race,’” O’Rourke recalled.

“And this was a point on which I and the person who made the statement disagree,” he said. “I think we’d be very lucky to have Vice President Biden in this race. I think he has a lot of perspective and experience to bring to bear.”

O’Rourke, of course, is polling behind Biden and other top-tier Democrats in the early primary campaign. Nevertheless, he was asked by a supporter on his first trip to Iowa to consider another vice president — his own.

Challenged while leaving a house party in Dubuque to select a woman for vice president if he becomes the nominee, O’Rourke said he did not want to be presumptuous but “that would be my preference.”

Later, he told reporters: “I feel, three days in, it’s presumptuous for me to think about who I would select as a vice president. … But as I also said to someone inside, it would be very difficult not to select a woman with so many extraordinary women who are running right now.”