When they ask when the walls began to crumble for the GOP establishment, politicos will point to this race. Ted Cruz, the underfunded, under-famed grassroots conservative took on the abundantly funded, well-known Texas Lieutenant Governor and won.
The Associated Press has called it for Cruz.
Grassroots from across the state banded together to push Cruz across the finish line. Last week, Senators Rand Paul, Jim DeMint, and Mike Lee, joined Sarah Palin and rallied for Cruz in Houston. The push worked: Cruz led in the polls ahead of the primary run-off and claimed victory tonight.
This latest victory is arguably the biggest victory of the tea party movement, who’ve racked up an impressive cache of wins. Each candidate ran a good race, and the primary was as negative as expected, but this is politics, and politics is a blood sport.
It’s no longer enough anymore to have an “R” after your name; to win a GOP primary you ought to have a conservative record and platform to boot. Gone are the days when big spending Republicans could coast through elections because the people didn’t realize that they had choices. Ted Cruz positioned himself as a stark contrast to the status quo and was elected because of it.
The sleeping giant is awake. The American voter is informed and, come November, what happened in Indiana and once again in Texas will happen on a much larger scale. Spring cleaning isn’t just for spring.