As it turns out, Beto was born to lose. He entered the Democratic primary in third place behind Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) and former vice president Joe Biden, the eventual nominee, and raised an impressive amount of money. Unfortunately, Beto’s poll numbers steadily declined from there, and in just a few months’ time, he was approaching “statistically insignificant” territory in the early primary states. He quit the race in November 2019, months before voters had the chance to not vote for him.
At the time, Beto had urged the remaining Democratic candidates to focus on issues that “brought us together,” such as his wildly unpopular proposal to take away people’s guns. His recent attempt to influence the Democratic Senate primary in Massachusetts by endorsing Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D., Mass.) over the incumbent, Sen. Ed Markey (D., Mass.), also ended in failure.
Despite his flaws as a candidate, Beto embodied much of what Democratic voters were looking for in a candidate. Their desire to nominate a white male was obvious, but at the end of the day, they just couldn’t stomach a white guy under the age of 75.
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