May the force be with you:
On Sunday, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter to use a "Star Wars" reference about net neutrality to actor Mark Hamill, but his explanation wasn't well received.
"Luke, I know Hollywood can be confusing, but it was Vader who supported govt power over everything said & done on the Internet. That's why giant corps (Google, Facebook, Netflix) supported the FCC power grab of net neutrality," Cruz tweeted at Hamill Sunday, using the incorrect Twitter handle for Hamill.
"Reject the dark side: Free the net!" Cruz concluded his tweet.
Within an hour, the verteran "Star Wars" actor fired back with a quick response.
"Thanks for smarm-spaining it to me," Hamill wrote. "I know politics can be confusing, but you'd have more credibility if you spelled my name correctly. I mean IT'S RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF YOU! Maybe you're just distracted from watching porn at the office again."
Cruz’s opponent, Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D. TX), has been making Net Neutrality a campaign issue against Cruz:
Add the fight over net neutrality to a list of issues U.S. Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke is determined to debate U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz over.
O'Rourke, a Democrat from El Paso, spent Friday on social media slamming the Federal Communications Commission actions to potentially end net neutrality rules created during the Obama administration. He also used the issue to offer another contrast with Cruz, a Houston Republican who has supported ending the policy. O'Rourke's campaign also launched a fundraising email to supporters vowing to use the issue to help defeat Cruz in 2018.
"Ted Cruz's support of the repeal of net neutrality is one of the many reasons we've got to fight to unseat him in November of 2018," O'Rourke's campaign says in the email to supporters.
O'Rourke used Twitter to remind supporters that with friends, he was able to start a tech company in El Paso without having to "pay for play" with an internet service provider as he argues will happen with repeal of net neutrality regulations.
"If you don't want corporations deciding what you watch, news you read, music you hear, fight for #netneutrality," O'Rourke said on Twitter.
And O’Rourke has been working tirelessly to build a strong grassroots campaign all over Texas:
U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke said Tarrant County is the real battleground in the 2018 race for the U.S. Senate.
He knows the stats: No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas since 1994 and that Tarrant County is one of the reddest communities around.
But O’Rourke, a Democrat challenging U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his Senate seat next year, said he will keep coming back here, reaching out to locals and listening to their concerns.
“We have to win Tarrant County to win [Texas],” O’Rourke told the Star-Telegram Thursday night before holding a town hall gathering that drew an estimated 300 people to the Americado on West Berry Street. “As Tarrant County goes, so goes the state.
“But I’m not convinced that Tarrant County is red. I’m not convinced that Texas is red,” he said. “They traditionally have been non-voting.”
And the recent victory in Alabama, where Democrat Doug Jones surprised many across the country with his upset win over Republican Roy Moore — who faced allegations of sexual assault and pursuing women when they were teens and he was an adult — adds fuel to his fire.
“I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t know it was possible,” O’Rourke said during his first visit to Fort Worth since formally filing for the U.S. Senate race. “What Alabama did was show people that it’s possible.”
Let’s help O’Roruke pull off a Doug Jones in Texas. Click here to donate and get involved with Beto’s campaign.