Beto O’Rourke: Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told Fox Business News last week that Republicans shouldn’t underestimate O’Rourke. That is a view shared by a number of people in Trump’s inner circle.

He doesn’t have a long resume or a huge amount of experience, one Republican strategist said, but he’s got the X factor that lets you capture the media narrative. He’d also be a generational foil to Trump.

“I have personally been very concerned about Beto for quite some time,” a Trump campaign adviser said. “He seems to generate that liberal grassroots energy without being particularly in-your-face with his points of view. And he’s charismatic.”

If O’Rourke was the nominee, he would also force the White House to spend a lot of money in Texas, which they don’t plan to do.