Senior Staff Leaving Struggling Beto O’Rourke Campaign

As the Beto O’Rourke campaign struggles to gain momentum in the crowded Democratic presidential primary, two top campaign staffers have left the operation.

Becky Bond, one of O’Rourke’s top advisors from the 2018 Texas Senate campaign that put the El Paso Democrat on the map, has departed from her role within the presidential campaign. Her deputy, Zach Malitz, also departed. The two Democratic campaign professionals had previously worked on Bernie Sanders’ 2016 campaign.

O’Rourke is increasingly struggling to stand out in a crowded primary, and facing accusations of lacking bona fide policy proposals. Many within O’Rourke’s lane of the Democratic Party are instead following South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who appears to be utilizing much of the same campaign tactics Beto did in 2018 in a more effective manner.

Bond and Malitz told BuzzFeed that they had departed the O’Rourke campaign in order to “move on to other challenges.”

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O’Rourke’s also been slammed by progressive Democrats for falsely describing his campaign funding. He was forced to return a small donation from a Chevron lobbyist after incorrectly claiming that his campaign wasn’t accepting any contributions from lobbyists or PAC’s.

To those who watched O’Rourke’s strongly competitive 2018 campaign for the U.S Senate in Texas, it would some as a surprise to watch the meteoric Democrat’s presidential campaign crash and burn. But O’Rourke is lingering in a mediocre place in the national polls, and he’s failed to attract mass support in a manner that would enable him to seriously challenge Democratic heavyweights such as Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders for the nomination.

It might appear that the “inspirational” Democrat’s appeal might not live beyond a one-and-done strong second place finish in a challenge to Ted Cruz.