Texas Senator Ted Cruz earned a victory Tuesday night over his Democrat challenger Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, according to an Associated Press projection with a 4% unofficial margin.
In the weeks leading up to the election, Cruz jumped from a 4.6 percent lead in the polls to 6.8 percent shortly before Election Day. However, as early voting numbers came in from many of the state’s largest urban counties, O’Rourke jumped out to an early lead over the incumbent senator. That lead swapped back and forth over the next few hours.
As more suburban and rural counties came in, Senator Cruz took a slight lead that continues to grow with more election day results.
Frequently, Democrats do better on election day that Republicans do in Texas. However, the massive early vote appears to have exhausted the Democrat voting pool leaving the opportunity for Cruz to make up the early advantage shown by his opponent.
Cruz and O’Rourke raised a combined total of more than $100 million in their efforts to secure a victory in the November 6 General Election, the Texas Tribune previously reported. During the first 17 days of October, O’Rourke pulled in $8.5 million compared to $5.2 million raised by Cruz. O’Rourke also managed to hang on to his cash for the final push. As of the final report, O’Rourke had $10.3 million on hand compared to $6.7 for Cruz.
“Beto O’Rourke raised more money than any Texas Democrat in history and energized Texas Democratic voters in a way that no Texas Democrat has energized them for decades,” Rice University professor of political science, Dr. Mark Jones told Breitbart Texas in an interview Tuesday night. “But Texas is and remains a red state, and while Beto was able to cut the natural advantage of statewide Republicans in half, he still came up a half dozen points short of victory.”
“The election should though serve as a wake-up call for the Texas GOP, which saw a dozen state legislators lose and Democrats sweep Harris County, which Republicans had swept as recently as 2014” Jones concluded.
Dr. Jon R. Taylor, University of St. Thomas professor of political science responded, “Ted Cruz was able to offset a major fundraising disadvantage, a rock star-like opponent, celebrity-driven coverage, and a massive increase in Democrat early voting turnout by getting out the GOP vote on Election Day.”
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Border/Cartel Chronicles. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.