When Beto O'Rourke entered the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, on Thursday night, many thought he was there to take advantage of a huge concert crowd to make an announcement on whether he'd run for president in 2020.
Instead, the former U.S. Senate candidate was there to rock out to Metallica in his hometown.
O'Rourke, a former representative who rallied the Democratic base in the Lone Star State last year when he raised more money and lost a rather close race to incumbent Ted Cruz, said in late 2018 he would make an announcement in 2019 if he was ready to run for president.
After a January delay and then putting the announcement off until the end of February, this seemed like the ultimate moment for Beto, who was called a "rock star" by many of his supporters.
Instead, it was deaf-tone ears on what O'Rourke would do.
The El Paso Times, the hometown newspaper of O'Rourke, first reported the hometown guy's appearance at the concert. There were photos taken with fans and, of course, babies at the event center, the newspaper reported.
O'Rourke was born in West Texas and raised in El Paso before departing for a boarding school in Virginia. He then attended Columbia University in New York, where he graduated and eventually moonlighted as a bass guitarist with the punk band Foss.
O'Rourke eventually moved back to El Paso, started a business and served on the El Paso City Council.
He successfully ran for the House of Representatives and served for three terms before leaving and running a losing campaign against Ted Cruz for the Senate seat.
His charisma didn't go unnoticed, as he was suddenly tapped as a frontrunner to challenge President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
But since O'Rourke's defeat in November, a host of Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris — and other challengers have announced they will run for president in 2020.
Also in the fray is Joe Biden, the former vice president under Barack Obama. There have been reports that O'Rourke may halt a 2020 presidential bid in lieu of a vice-presidential nomination with Biden, according to this report from realclearpolitics.com.
