Cute article last night from NPR.
Beto got a surprisingly anemic 62% of the Dem primary vote.
Also, 1.5 million people voted in the GOP primary, and only about 1 million voted in the Dem primary.
I mean, the last two Senate primaries had less than 500K Dems voting, so it’s a good sign, but I doubt it will make a huge change.
Yes, if the same number of Republicans voted in the general election for Senate as voted for John Cornyn in 2014, the Democrats would need to have almost twice as many votes as they got in that election to win, which is . . . sort of difficult to imagine.
That said, it looks like one of O’Rourke’s biggest challenges is lack of name recognition since people who aren’t from El Paso or are political junkies have never heard of him. Fortunately, Rafael “Ted” Cruz may be seeking to help O’Rourke solve this particular problem through his favorite pasttime of being a smarmy asshole.
He does have a particular talent in that direction, bless his heart.
Even aside from the hypocrisy of Raphael Cruz criticizing O’Rourke for using a nickname, the ad isn’t even coherent. He knew he couldn’t fit in with a name like “Robert”, so he changed his name to “Beto”? Is that even supposed to make sense?
Whatever the case, Cruz seems to be taking a page from the Trump playbook (and God knows, he has plenty of experience being on the receiving end of that), and I’m sure it will work. Humor and mockery were never the Republicans’ strong suit, but Trump turned all that upside down with his own mean-spirited brand of it, and now they’re running with it.
The smarmy implied message of the contrast is to rev it up as a culture war. Cruz, of Hispanic heritage, has embraced a specific sort of White identity (and values). O’Rourke is, per the implied narrative, a liberal fourth Irish-American pandering to Hispanics. If there was a Pocahontas name for that he’s use it too.
I liked Beto’s response of posting a (very cute) picture of him as a child wearing a sweater with his nickname on it. He’s not someone who adopted a Hispanic nickname as an adult to run for office, he’s had it most of his life.
I’m in Texas and well aware that Beto’s candidacy is still a longshot, but he definitely has a chance. And there’s still a good amount of time until the election in November, a lot more time for Beto to get name recognition and higher approval. And I appreciate that while Beto could very easily just continually attack Cruz and get a lot of cheers, he instead mainly focuses on the positive things he could do as senator.
A clever strategy, at least in the early going. Cruz is an odious turd who generates his own oppo, all the qualities of a rattlesnake but lacking the warmth. Any informed Texan who still supports him is beyond the reach of reason and argument, Beto most likely already has as much of the anti-Cruz support as anyone is going to get.
As a recovering Texan, I firmly support my lefty/lib pals and gals from way up here. Sic 'em, ya’ll!
Will do, Bubba! 
It’s a developing story and I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out, but could Ted Cruz’s ties to Cambridge Analytica become a campaign issue? He’s at least mildly concerned or he wouldn’t be issuing statements about it.
Ted Cruz says Cambridge Analytica told his presidential campaign its data use was legal
I believe he issued the statement because his opponent took a shot at him. Maybe it will be a campaign issue - guilt by association is a time-honored tradition in politics. It will have to be pretty carefully focused, and that’s hard to do in a campaign. Once it spins into “data mining is unethical” it’s over. Because both sides do it. And O’Rourke is a three termer - sooner or later some ties will be found for him to some company that did something shady.
Regards,
Shodan
“We accidentally hired da bad guys, but it’s not our fault, 'cause dey tole us dey was da good guys!”
This is just the break that the Romney campaign needs!
Regards,
Shodan
Riiiiiiight, because Obama’s data mining company used bribery and sex workers to entrap politicians, too…
Oh, wait, no they didn’t. :rolleyes:
The point is that it really is true that everyone does it, and everyone relies on the assurances of the company that they are doing it legally. Obama did it, Cruz did it, O’Rourke did it, Trump did it, Hillary did it.
Regards,
Shodan
And yet, none of the Democrats accidentally hired the bad guys. Maybe they aren’t just relying on the company’s assurances, and doing a little bit of independent double-checking?
Not the same really.
Don’t suppose you have a cite for that.
Regards,
Shodan