Former Maryland governor and 2016 Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley announced Thursday that he will not run for president in 2020—but said Beto O’Rourke should. In an op-ed for the Des Moines Register, O’Malley wrote that when he was running for president, “America wasn’t in the mood for new leadership. We were in a mood of anger, rage and retribution. And in this mood, Donald Trump’s candidacy rose.” But, he claimed, there’s now “a different mood in our nation,” and “People are looking for a new leader who can bring us together.”

O’Malley argued that Rep. O’Rourke (D-TX)—the beloved liberal congressman who lost a surprisingly close race for the Texas senate to Ted Cruz (R-TX) in the 2018 midterms—is that new leader. “O’Rourke has the wisdom to listen, the courage to lead, and a rock-solid faith in the powerful goodness of our nation. Because he is of a new generation, O’Rourke understands that a new way of governing—with openness, transparency, and performance—is called for to tackle our problems in the Information Age,” O’Malley wrote. He added that “Like so many other Americans, I believe we need new leadership to make that future a reality. And, I believe the new leader who can best bring us together and turn us around to create that better American future, is Beto O’Rourke.”