PrintTed Cruz is running hard, not scared
Unless something dramatic happens between now and November, Democrats are poised to make significant gains in the midterm elections.
How significant depends on many factors, including just how far to the left the Democratic base will force their candidates to run. In Texas, Beto O'Rourke is the leading Democrat running to unseat first-term senator Ted Cruz. You would think that in deep red Texas, O'Rourke would make an effort to hide his far-left liberalism. Instead, he is embracing the agenda of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, claiming it's what Texans want.
O'Rourke is outraising Cruz in campaign contributions as he pulls in support from Hollywood to New York. But as has been shown recently, money doesn't matter as much as it once did, and Cruz, taking nothing for granted, is running hard, not scared.
"Congressman O'Rourke is running far, far to the left," said Texas' junior senator. "Most campaigns in Texas, in the general election, try to pretend to move to the middle, try to pretend to be centrist. Congressman O'Rourke is not doing that. He's running like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren."
But O'Rourke rejected the notion that his ideas were too liberal for Texans. He said that Texans at the 230 counties he's visited wanted improved public education, affordable health care, jobs that pay above a living wage and immigration reform.
"These aren't liberal or conservative ideas, they're just the ideas and goals of Texans," he said. "And that's how we're running this campaign – showing up, listening to Republicans, Democrats, and independents alike, and following the lead of those we meet along the way."
Cruz conceded that he's concerned about O'Rourke's stout fundraising, telling reporters after his speech that he did not haul in as much as O'Rourke snagged for the reporting period that ended last month. The El Paso Democrat raised $6.7 million in the first quarter of 2018.
But Cruz said he's "comforted" by the belief that there are more conservatives in Texas than liberals.
"They're not in step with what Texans want," Cruz said. "There are people on the far left, but there are a lot more conservatives. ... If conservatives show up in November and vote, I think we'll have a good election."
Polls show Cruz with a comfortable, if not substantial, lead. And O'Rourke is building up name recognition while his far-left agenda is exciting liberals in the state.
But Cruz is absolutely right. There are a helluva lot more conservatives in Texas than liberals, and Cruz would have to stumble catastrophically for O'Rourke to win.
