Oh Beto, Don’t Take Your Love to Town. Or Iowa.

He should run for President! He’s in Iowa! There he is at the airport with Ted Cruz! Maybe he can go solve things in Syria or North Korea!

Hang on. Just chill, everyone else. Hands off.

Beto, we need you in Texas.

Your work here is not done. Our work here is not done. We knocked it out of the park in the state’s largest county. And we came painfully close in many other races. But we didn’t get the prize of putting Democrats in statewide offices. We’re still a state shamefully represented by a Lt. Gov. obsessed to a troubling degree with how and where people urinate, and a thrice-indicted Attorney General.

Please don’t abandon Texas. Don’t leave us to try to recreate what you’ve built. We know all too well what years of chronic under-investment and infighting does to Democrats’ chances on the ballot. It’s time to find out what happens when we do the opposite and keep doing it, over and over again. 

You’ve shown you are willing to do the painstaking work that kind of movement requires.

Analyzing the numbers shows where the Democrats need to focus going forward, and your campaign shows what sort of outreach and activism turns citizens into voters. And you’ve got some great newly-elected Democrats from Congress on down who will be there to keep the work going, too.

So Iowa may be calling, and New Hampshire is going to love you, trust me. Speaking engagements on college campuses and with Democratic organizations around the county will be yours for the taking, and undoubtedly, podcasts and political talk shows are already clamoring to book you.

But, as one of my heroes would say, I sure hope you’ll dance with them what brung you. Keep talking with us, listening to us, and working alongside us in this Lone Star State.

No one expects you to be the actual Lone Star, by the way. We need a whole galaxy, so we need you to do what I know too few in Texas Democratic politics do well—reach back and pull others up alongside you. Showcase local candidates and longtime activists. Partner with leadership development programs, and help fund the infrastructure we’ve fought to hard to put in place.

Turn your star power on for the benefit of all of us, and the light will reflect back to make you an even brighter light in the Democratic firmament.

Soon, it’ll be time to gin it all up again. It’ll be time to put young progressive candidates on city council, on school boards, and in other municipal leadership roles. And right after we’re done doing that, it’ll be time to fight for more seats in the Texas House of Representatives and Senate. And let’s get ready to restore integrity in those statewide offices while we’re at it.

We can do this, and we will do this, but it’ll be a helluva lot easier and more fun to be doing it with your support and leadership.

So Beto, please don’t go. We’ve only just begun. We need your voice and your vision in this state.

And then, once we take Texas, we’ll gladly help you get anywhere you want to go.