HOUSTON—One of the nation’s most-watched Senate races—between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and opponent Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas)—just drew even more attention as President Donald Trump headed to the The Lone Star State to speak at a campaign-style rally. The Toyota Center effortlessly filled up its 18,000 seat capacity, and a further 10,000 to 15,000 supporters…
HOUSTON—One of the nation’s most-watched Senate races—between Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and opponent Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas)—just drew even more attention as President Donald Trump headed to the The Lone Star State to speak at a campaign-style rally.
The Toyota Center effortlessly filled up its 18,000 seat capacity, and a further 10,000 to 15,000 supporters watched outside from digital screens. Earlier, Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign said more than 100,000 Texans registered to attend the event.
Trump held the massive rally to invigorate Republicans to vote for Cruz—a former political foe—as the midterms loom just 15 days away. Early voting has already begun in Texas and the president hopes to keep and expand the GOP’s current 51–49 majority in the chamber.
If O’Rourke wins the seat, it would give Democrats a higher chance of gaining control of the Senate—the race gained more national attention than normal Texas competitions, in part because it’s one of the most expensive Senate races this year.
O’Rourke raised $38.1 million for his campaign in the third quarter, a new record for the largest Senate fundraising quarter ever, according to his campaign. Meanwhile Cruz’s gained $12 million over the past three months.
But the war chest alone does not guarantee a win. Multiple polls placed Cruz ahead of O’Rourke by an average of 7 points. A CNN poll had Cruz leading with 52 points against O’Rourke’s 45. A New York Times/Sienna College poll placed Cruz at 51 points, while O’Rourke had 43.
In a rare campaign appearance, Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump appeared on stage to show their support, before Cruz or the president spoke.
“We are driving the Democrats absolutely nuts. They are watching this enthusiasm and they just don’t know what to do anymore… We have an economy the likes that we haven’t seen before,” Eric Trump told the crowd.
The rally indeed comes amid a time where Republican enthusiasm is up nationally, after the bitter confirmation battle over new Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Lara Trump, in reference to the crowd numbers said, “This is how President Donald Trump stays president for 4 four more years.”
Back in the 2016 presidential election, Trump won the state by 9 percentage points over Democrat challenger Hillary Clinton.
Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign manager, also made a short appearance on stage before Cruz took the spotlight.
“God bless Texas and God bless President Donald Trump,” Cruz’s first words to the stadium were.
O’Rourke and Cruz have debated on stage twice so far. During the rally, the Republican Senator embraced one of Trump’s new catchphrases “ #JobsNotMobs ”!
“We are living in extraordinary times… Do we embrace jobs or give in to mobs? We’ve had a couple of debates with as clear as distinction that anyone can hope for,” Cruz said.
Throughout his remarks, Cruz frequently touted his work with the president on tax breaks and derided his opponent’s stance on wanting to increase taxes.
“Beto O’Rourke wants higher taxes. Beto voted against the tax cut. He voted repeatedly in favour of higher property taxes. In El Paso he even voted for something called a rain tax. But here in Texas we celebrate when it rains, we don’t tax you for it,” Cruz said.
He also touched on unemployment levels, saying the levels in Texas have been the lowest nationally in 49 years. He also added that African-American, Hispanic, and Asian-American unemployment all have seen the lowest levels of unemployment ever recorded.
Being Texas, the Second Amendment was always on the menu. Cruz is a strong supporter of it, while O’Rourke is against it. In February this year O’Rourke wrote on Twitter how he had received an “F” rating by the NRA. Cruz told the crowd that when he saw that, he promptly retweeted O’Rourke’s post.
Cruz talked about his efforts in getting judges nominated, building the border wall, opposing sanctuary cities and at one point, criticized his opponent for calling for the impeachment of Trump. Days ago, O’Rourke said that he would vote to impeach Trump.
“This is Houston, this is Texas.. We want jobs, we want freedom, we want opportunity and we are delivering on all of those,” Cruz told the crowd. “I’m going to make a prediction, in 2020 Trump is overwhelmingly going to be re-elected to be president of the united states.”
Meanwhile O’ Rourke will also be rallying and making stops around Houston, Spring, Pasadena, Missouri City, and Rosenberg before he heads out to central Texas. His campaign was recently sued for allegedly sending constituents unsolicited text messages—a violation of the law.
The class-action lawsuit, filed on Oct. 19 in the Northern District of Texas Court, listed Collin County resident Sameer Syeed as a plaintiff and alleges, on behalf of all Texans, that the campaign sent texts to voters without obtaining their permission. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act bans the use of “automatic telephone” equipment to send texts or calls to a person’s cell phone without their permission.
Some reports speculated that O’Rourke may be eyeing a 2020 presidency run. He responded last week at a CNN Town Hall that it’s a “definitive no.”
Trump, the last to speak at the rally, said Cruz has helped him carry out his agenda. He said aside from the current tax cuts, the GOP is planning to add another next week.
“Ted is leading the charge in congress for more tax cuts… “We are going to put a 10 percent tax cut for middle-income families, we are going to put that in next week,” Trump said.
“Nobody has helped me more with your tax cuts, your regulation including our military and vets than Senator Ted Cruz. He defended your jobs. He defended your borders. He defends your family, he defends your faith, and with other Republicans, we defend your freedom,” Trump said.
As the migrant caravan continued to approach the United States, Trump announced on Oct. 22 that he will reduce or stop aid to the Central American countries of Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala for their failure to stop their citizens from entering illegally.
Trump also cast blame on the Democrats.
“You know how the caravan started? I think the Democrats have something to do with it.
