Since 2018, O’Rourke has lost bids for the U.S. Senate, the presidency, and most recently, to serve as governor of Texas. Credit: Luke Harold / Wikimedia Commons

After a trio of failed but headline-grabbing political campaigns, Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke has accepted an academic fellowship at the University of Chicago, the Express-News reports.

It’s unclear whether the former El Paso congressman will return to politics. But, for the time being, he’ll be teaching at the university as a Pritzker fellow. In that role, he’ll lead seminars using Texas as a case study to explore the present and future state of democracy in the U.S., according to the daily.

O’Rourke was catapulted into the national spotlight with a near-miss 2018 campaign to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate. However, his political brand was tarnished by a lackluster run for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, and this year he lost a race to unseat Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Republican incumbent.

O’Rourke’s new gig in Illinois won’t be his first time lecturing to college students, though. He previously taught a politics class at Texas State University and a graduate-level class on democracy at UT Austin in 2021, according to the Express-News.

Coming soon: SA Current Daily newsletter. We’ll send you a handful of interesting San Antonio stories every morning. Subscribe now to not miss a thing.

Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter

Related Stories

This article appears in Jan 11-24, 2023.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...