Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke have this big policy goal in common

(Image credit: Kimberly White/Getty Images)

published 5 June 2019

A President Beto O'Rourke might have something to work on with his former top rival.

The Texas Democrat announced on Wednesday that if he was elected president, he'd push for a constitutional amendment that forced term limits on congressmembers and Supreme Court justices. The suggestion sets O'Rourke apart from most contenders in the 2020 race, but simultaneously pushes him closer to his former competitor Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

O'Rourke narrowly lost his bid to unseat Cruz last year, but he drew in supporters nationwide and is now hoping to mobilize them for his 2020 campaign. He introduced a swath of government reforms to his 2020 agenda on Wednesday, proposing some common Democrat-approved goals such as making Election Day a national holiday, ending gerrymandering, and allowing released felons to vote. He'd also like to place term limits on Supreme Court justices and congressmembers — something fellow contenders Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) have opposed, BuzzFeed News notes.

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That same plan, minus the limits on Supreme Court justices, looks a lot the constitutional amendment Cruz proposed in January. "Term limits on members of Congress offer a solution to the brokenness we see in Washington, D.C.," Cruz said in a press release at the time, while O'Rourke introduced them as a way to "increase participation in our democracy." But given that there's a solid conservative majority on the Supreme Court, it seems unlikely that there's a Cruz-O'Rourke partnership in America's future.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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