"Drudge Report" founder Matt Drudge wondered Friday if upstart Democratic Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke could be the party's answer to President Donald Trump in 2020 should O'Rourke lose his bid against Senator Ted Cruz of Texas next month.
Drudge, who rarely tweets and usually deletes his posts later, offered up three messages about O'Rourke and included a shot of his site's banner headline about the Texas congressman's record of $38.1 million raised during the third quarter.
The conservative Drudge also compared O'Rourke to President John F. Kennedy, citing the late president's trademark teeth, but it was unclear if he was being sarcastic about O'Rourke's "great swing" of a baseball bat.
"Is Beto the Trump-buster Dems have been praying for? He seemingly has it all. Good demos, sex appeal; a fundraising powerhouse. Kennedyesque [the teeth]. And he has a great swing! Watch Out," Drudge said.
"Star Is Born! If Texas senate campaign fails, run for White House! " Drudge first tweeted.
On Drudge Report's main page, and just above the headline about O'Rourke's fundraising, the picture below is displayed but the link directs readers to a Politico op-ed that bashes the media's overall fawning coverage of O'Rourke.
"The media's adoration of the three-term House member from El Paso knows a simple origin. He's lauded and cuddled by reporters for the simple reason that he's not Ted Cruz, the Skeletor of American politics," wrote Politico senior media reporter Jack Shafer, who challenged the media over the number of positive profiles of O'Rourke. The sub-headline for the piece read: "Fine, he's not Ted Cruz. But can we move on?"
O'Rourke announced the massive fundraising haul he received between July and September on Friday, and while it dwarfed Cruz's $12.1 million rake, the polls still showed O'Rourke behind by as much as nine points with 25 days until the midterm elections.
There had been calls for O'Rourke to possibly run against Trump in 2020, but he shot those down during his first debate with Cruz last month.
"I will commit to serving every single day of my full six-year term for the people of Texas," O'Rourke said, while Cruz did not directly answer the question about whether he could serve another full term in the Senate.
O'Rourke had garnered comparisons to former President Barack Obama with the nature of his meteoric rise. Obama won a U.S. Senate seat for Illinois in 2004 and served until winning the presidency in 2008.
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