Harry Reid asked Beto O'Rourke to run for the Senate. He didn't respond.

Former Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has a problem with the 20-something-strong Democratic primary field.

The ex-Senate majority leader retired in 2017 and is currently fighting pancreatic cancer, but that hasn't stopped him from taking shot after shot at President Trump over the past two years. Now Reid has broadened his view to Democratic targets, particularly those 2020 contenders he thinks should've run for the Senate instead, he tells The New York Times.

While Democrats have piled into the presidential race, the party has recently faced a "recruitment problem" when it comes to drawing Senate candidates, as the Times puts it. Reid suggests this stems from "a feeling that the Senate ... is not dignified like it used to be," and then said it was "a shame that someone like [2020 contender and Montana Gov.] Steve Bullock would not run for the Senate."

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Reid particularly wanted to see failed Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke try again in 2020, this time for Sen. John Cornyn's (R-Texas) seat. O'Rourke "came to see me at my home" and "I told him I thought he should've run" for Senate instead of the presidency, Reid said. O'Rourke said "nothing" in return.

Still, Reid won't declare a favorite 2020 candidate just yet. "Everybody knows my affection for Joe Biden," Reid told the Times, but he added that Biden "knows — I've told him I can't endorse him." Then again, he did tell Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to seriously consider a 2020 run back in 2017 — and she listened. Read Reid's whole interview at The New York Times.