Cruz Bests Beto on Social Media by Going Live From San Angelo on Facebook Wednesday

SAN ANGELO, TX -- U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, the junior Senator from Texas, campaigns in San Angelo Wednesday evening at a sold out venue that only required a free ticket. 

Cruz faces a tough challenge from U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke of El Paso who is the media darling and by reports from the national media and pollsters, within striking distance of Cruz. 

O'Rourke's campaign and national media pollsters would have you believe O'Rourke is unstoppable and unbeatable.  

And he is.  For now.  

Beto has campaigned in San Angelo on four separate occasions.  

But there's a chink in the Kennedyesque armor of the far left (literally, He's from El Paso, can't go any farther left on the Texas map than that) savior of the Texas Democrat Party; he supposed to be the social media guru and can take down Ted without Political Action Committee (PAC) money by visiting all 254 counties in Texas and relying solely on money donated from everyday folks like you and me and live posts on Facebook.

Here are the numbers:  "Cruz, however, is an exception to the rule. The Republican often openly banters with other politicians and celebrities on Twitter and interacts with supporters through hashtags like #CruzCrew. His campaign plans to host a Facebook Live from an event Wednesday night in San Angelo. And with his national profile, Cruz eclipses O'Rourke in number of Twitter followers — 3.2 million to the Democrat’s 251,000."

That's according to Dallas Morning News Political Reporter Forest Milburn.  

Cruz has 3.2 million Twitter followers while O'Rourke has 251,000.  Add to that the campaign doesn't begin in earnest until after Labor Day.  Every successful veteran politician and political operative knows that.  

Milburn goes on to say "O’Rourke, who has visited all 254 Texas counties as he barnstorms across the state, is facing what will be an expensive uphill battle to unseat the first-term senator."  

Back in 2012, then Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst was the front runner to replace retiring U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison.  Cruz was the upstart, TEA Party candidate who was well spoken and had rock solid support.  Dewhurst was the establishment candidate for junior Senator from Texas; he'd been a loyal party supporter and promoted all of then Texas Governor Rick Perry's agenda for years.  Dewhurst was next in line to be Governor of Texas, but when Hutchison announced she wouldn't seek reelection, the race was on and everyone in the upper echelon of power in the Republican Party of Texas began jockeying for position to run for her Senate seat. 

Both Cruz and O'Rourke have raised about $24 million each according to opensecrets.org.  With such a disparity in social media followers, the history of pollsters being dead wrong at this point in the campaign, and the fact that every Texas Democratic darling in the past two decades has failed to defeat a Republican incumbent AND media hype hasn't turned into votes for Democrats in Texas, Beto remains the underdog and the next soon-to-be-failed great hope of Texas Democrats while Texas Republicans continue to back their own incumbents and rally to the polls in greater numbers in November.

In the immortal words of Mary Chapin Carpenter, "The stars might lie, but the numbers never do!"