Outgoing Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, may have missed out on becoming his state's next senator, but he rounds out 2018 with another title: "El Pasoan of Year."

O'Rourke, who narrowly lost his race last month against incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, was awarded the honor late Sunday by El Paso Inc.

In an interview with the weekly business magazine, the three-term congressman lauded his hometown.

"I loved using El Paso as the example throughout the campaign,” O’Rourke told the journal. “It’s so much of what’s right with the country and is what I want the rest of the country to see. There’s so many ways El Paso itself is the answer to this moment and the answer to the question the country is asking about itself: ‘Who are we?’”





Despite his defeat in the midterm election, O'Rourke's unconventional approach to his 2018 campaign catapulted him into the national limelight and earned him record fundraising levels. For example, the Texas Democrat refused to accept political action committee money.

O'Rourke has emerged as a front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, topping early polls with former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with the Democrats. He has, however, faced criticism from Sanders supporters over his liberal bona fides.