Democratic Senate candidate, Beto O’Rourke, is posing the greatest threat to Republican Senator Ted Cruz of his entire political career. Beto, a rising star in Texas Democratic circles, is not only generating an “Ann Richards-level enthusiasm,” drawing large crowds, he’s outraised Ted Cruz in the first three of four FEC reporting periods.
In Texas, Ted Cruz Is Facing an Unusual Challenge: A Formidably Financed Democrat
For the first time in Mr. Cruz’s rise to political prominence in Texas, he is facing a serious Democratic challenger, Representative Beto O’Rourke from El Paso, who has stunned political observers by raising more money than any Democrat who has ever run for a Senate seat in Texas.
Mr. O’Rourke, a former punk-rock bassist and El Paso city councilman, has raised $13.2 million in the race so far, and outraised Mr. Cruz in three of four Federal Election Commission reporting periods. (Mr. Cruz has not yet reported his latest fund-raising.) In the first three months of 2018, Mr. O’Rourke raised $6.7 million, more than any other Democratic Senate candidate in the country in that period.
Mr. O’Rourke’s campaign has given Texas Democrats a burst of hope. They view Mr. Cruz as politically vulnerable and disconnected in Texas after his failed run for president, especially as anger against President Trump rises even in red states such as Texas. And they see in Mr. O’Rourke — an Irish-American congressman who is fluent in Spanish and has gone by Beto, a Spanish nickname of Roberto, since childhood — a model of the future of the Texas Democratic Party.
Cruz has not released his first-quarter fundraising numbers yet, but O'Rourke's $6.7 million total is on a different level than his previous hauls, which ranged from $1.7 million to $2.4 million. Those alone were good enough to outraise Cruz for three of the last four reporting periods.
Furthermore, the $6.7 million total came from more than 141,000 contributions — another record-busting number for O'Rourke.
“I feel like there are so many amazing people who have so much to contribute, and age or experience shouldn’t be a limiting factor,” he said. Speaking about young voters, O’Rourke says: “They get that the political system really is rigged, and to some degree it’s fixed by people who have this extraordinary concentration of wealth or power or influence, and opening it up to everybody is a real change in our democracy for the positive.”
Beto O’Rourke, current member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is running a grassroots style campaign. He’s not using pollsters or political consultants and he’s getting a big boost from young voters.
Beto supports single payer healthcare system, a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines and holds progressive positions on immigration, LGBT and women’s rights.
A Democratic surge is taking hold in the Lone Star state ahead of midterms. For the first time in decades, Democrats are running in all 36 Congressional seats.
What results of Texas primaries could foreshadow for November
Some of Democrats' energy is reflected in the number of candidates running. For the first time in a quarter century in Texas, Democrats are running in all 36 congressional seats. And Democrats are expected to pick up some vulnerable seats from Republicans.
“No Texas Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in nearly 30 years or any statewide office since 1994. But U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke is optimistic he can break the streak, in part by eschewing consultants, pollsters and PAC money.”
O’Rourke is determined he can shake things up in Texas and he may be right. Democrats are proving they can win areas Trump handily won. Tuesday, a Democratic candidate won a seat on Wisconsin’s Supreme Court after “a major swing in Democrats' favor in a state Senate race in Wisconsin earlier this year, it's the latest indication that the political ground has shifted since President Donald Trump and Republican Sen. Ron Johnson won there in 2016.”
Walker warns that GOP is 'at risk of a #BlueWave' after Democratic win in Wisconsin court race
The run began in November 2017, when they handily won the Virginia governor's race and nearly flipped control of a state assembly that had been two-thirds Republican.
Even more worrying for Republicans is that Democratic candidates have had success in areas Trump won easily in 2016, including a special election for a US Senate seat in Alabama in December, and then in March when Democrat Conor Lamb won a House seat in western Pennsylvania's deep-red steel country.
The early success of Beto O’Rourke’s campaign is part of a growing blue wave across the nation and has left NRA shill Ted Cruz, who kicked off his “Tough as Texas” campaign last night at the Redneck Country Club, shaking in his boots.
BETO FOR TEXAS
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