MSNBC panel loves idea of how Beto O’Rourke could electrify Democrats at the next debate

The panel on MSNBC's "Saturday Night Politics" gushed with praise for an idea of how former Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) could excite Democrats at the next Democratic Party debate in September.

Jason Johnson, the politics editor for The Root, offered the idea during a discussion of the need for Democrats to oust Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as Senate leader by retaking the body in the 2020 election.

"It would be amazing to me -- we want a viral moment -- if Beto makes it to the debate in Houston and walks on stage is like, 'I'm out, running for the Senate' -- just drops the mic," Johnson suggested.

"Everybody would think it was amazing and obnoxious, but he could march right into the Senate," he said.

"That's a great move," host Donny Deutsch said.

"If he decided to run for the Senate, Texas would have been -- from the very beginning -- competitive," former Trump adviser Sam Nunberg said.

"You have to wonder if this shooting has changed Beto's mind," Washington Post reporter Jackie Alemany said.

"He has clearly been really emotional and really raw and really angry. I mean, I don't know if his campaign has come to grips with reality yet that he's not really registering in the polls, but that seems like it would be the wise move here," she added.

O'Rourke is not the only low-polling White House hopefully being urged to run for Senate instead. Former and Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT) have also been lobbied to abandon their presidential campaigns and run against incumbent Republican senators in their respective states.

"But it's not just Beto, it's Hickenlooper, Steve Bullock, it is a lot of people," Alemany continued. "It is not beating Mitch McConnell in Kentucky, it's taking all the other swing states."

Democrats need to pick up three seats in 2020 to control the Senate if they retake the White House.

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