The Beto for President buzz is a culmination of what he mastered in 2018:

He raised $80 million for his Senate bid against Cruz, and most of that came from online donations.

He used Facebook to live-stream videos of everything from his campaign rallies to eating lunch at Whataburger (which got 124,000 views). “He’s got a skillset I haven’t seen since Obama and he’s got that Bobby Kennedy feel to him,” said Watts.

He talked about racial injustice and police brutality against black people without relying on talking points.

He won over moderate Republicans in the suburbs of Texas while also attracting women, people of color and voters under 30 (he won them by 42 percentage points).