Beto O'Rourke Thinks Senator Ted Cruz is Toast

SAN ANGELO, TX — Republican Senator Ted Cruz raised $2.7 million last reporting period for his senatorial campaign. He raised those funds from the rich, the Political Action Committees—Super PACS— and people who aren’t you, the Democratic Party’s candidate for Cruz’s senate seat claimed Friday evening at a rally at the C.J. Davidson Center on the campus of Angelo State University. In contrast, his campaign, O’Rourke said, raised $6.7 million in small donations of $25 each.

He relayed a story about Henry, O’Rourke’s seven-year-old son, who often asks, “Dad, are you winning?”

O’Rourke said he usually tried to explain the complex process of running for senate—the primaries, the campaign, and etc. “We really won’t know if I’m winning until Nov. 6, Election Day,” O’Rourke said.

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Above: Beto O'Rourke speaks at Angelo State University on April 27, 2018. (LIVE! Photo/Joe Hyde)

But with polling numbers from Quinnipiac released April 18 showing the race too close to call, coupled with the fundraising numbers, O’Rourke said he now answers his son, “You know, I think we’re winning!”

The campaign is “the most thrilling experience of my life outside family,” O’Rourke said.

Senator Ted Cruz, campaigning nearby in Seminole Friday, acknowledged the threat O’Rourke’s campaign presents. “We are taking this race seriously,” he told KCBD TV Newschannel 11 while there.

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Above: Ted Cruz in Seminole, Texas on April 27, 2018 (Screen shot from Lubbock Newschannel 11)

Cruz said there was a stark divide, and that Texans have a choice in November. “Usually, [Texas] Democrat candidates try to tack towards the middle, or pretend to be moderate. This isn’t happening this time,” Cruz said.

Cruz’s point comes across from watching the charismatic O’Rourke on the stump. Not one issue in O’Rourke’s presentation would cost less money.

He called for universal health care coverage.

He alluded to supporting the creation of a federal program to provide free education to everyone. Pointing at community workforce programs like Burleson Works, he said these types of initiatives retrain women and men into a new career after their former jobs are replaced through automation, for example. In Fort Stockton, he said, the community there sponsored one of their own all the way through medical school. Their only requirement in return was that the new doctor begin his practice in Fort Stockton, where medical professionals are scarce, and then practice there for six years.

“What if these Texas examples were used and helped lead the country to make sure we make the investment in one another? Is it going to be cheap? Probably not. But it will be less expensive than not having people reach their full potential,” O’Rourke said.

Free college was Democratic Party candidate Bernie Sanders’ signature issue during the 2016 presidential election. “Congressman O’Rourke is running hard left. He’s running like he’s Bernie Sanders,” Cruz told the Lubbock news channel.

A college student stood up at the O’Rourke rally and told him she was afraid of being deported. From Nepal, the student said she arrived in the U.S. on Temporary Protected Status. Nepal suffered an earthquake in 2015, and the State Department allowed 15,000 Nepal citizens to come to the U.S. for school or work. There are 9,000 Nepalese citizens remaining in the U.S. under that program, she said.

“I’m in this program currently,” the Nepalese student said. “It has allowed me to graduate from ASU with a GPA of 3.9.” She was offered a job as a business banker at a major bank in Dallas, she said.

Then, she stated, “Yesterday [Thursday], President Trump decided to terminate that program. And now I’m an imposter and at any moment that [banking] job can be taken away from me.”

“My question is, how am I hurting this country?” she asked.

O’Rourke took the opportunity to argue the pro-business impact of all immigration, legal or otherwise. The U.S. should welcome immigrants with talent to the U.S. to make our country collectively more competitive, he said.

“If immigration is a problem, we want more of that problem,” O’Rourke answered.

Cruz attacked O’Rourke for being an advocate for open borders. No one in the crowd at ASU seemed to give pause to unfettered, illegal or legal immigration. O’Rourke suggested the federal government hire more immigration officials to speed up immigration.

A new resident of San Angelo, who said he just moved here from Arlington in the Metroplex, asked an interesting follow-up question, tied to the immigration debate.

“My question is about fear,” he said. “We have a large population afraid of losing their way of life and that’s one of the biggest drivers for Republican voters. So how do you reach out to those who feel [their way of life] is threatened, and assuage those fears, and get them to vote for you?”

O’Rourke turned the question into a statement on needing more government intervention to calm those fears.

There is nothing wrong with having that fear that you’re going to lose your job or won’t have adequate health care, O’Rourke said.

Cruz noted that O’Rourke has personally pledged to impeach President Trump.

“He’s running hard left. And you’re seeing liberals over the country—New York liberals, Hollywood liberals—who are thrilled because he’s running a campaign right out of Hollywood or New York. But those aren’t Texas values. Texas values are common sense conservative values. We believe is low taxes, low regulations, more jobs. We want to protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I’ve been the leading defender of the Second Amendment in the U.S. Senate, so I think Texans will have a choice, a clear choice, and we’re going to continue to work to earn the votes of every Texan across the state,” Cruz said.

San Angelo plaintiff’s attorney Guy Choate thanked O’Rourke for running a dynamic campaign. Whether you win or lose, Choate said, you are rebuilding the Democratic Party in Texas with your campaign.