{"id":31621,"date":"2018-08-08T01:26:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T01:26:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31621"},"modified":"2018-08-08T01:26:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-08T01:26:59","slug":"orourke-might-reshape-the-texas-landscape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=31621","title":{"rendered":"O’Rourke might reshape the Texas landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune has written a quite insightful story that starts with one of the better ledes I have read in some time.<\/p>\n

Livingston writes: It\u2019s the most backhanded of compliments.<\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke<\/a>‘s campaign for U.S. Senate has caught so much fire throughout the state that the new favorite betting game in Texas politics is \u201cHow close can he get to Ted Cruz<\/a> in November?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The implication in the question’s phrasing is that O’Rourke’s loss remains a given.<\/em><\/p>\n

Her essay is tough to read if you’re supporting O’Rourke’s bid to defeat the Cruz Missile.<\/p>\n

Here it is.<\/a><\/p>\n

O’Rourke is raising a lot of money, far more than Cruz. He has embarked on an unusual campaign strategy, conducting town hall meetings and meet-and-greet with voters who live in heavily Republican rural communities.<\/p>\n

Cruz is taking this challenge seriously. Moreover, Cruz does have numbers — and history — on his side. Texas comprises many more Republicans than Democrats; and the state has gone more than two decades since the latest time it elected a Democrat to statewide office.<\/p>\n

Yes, O’Rourke’s fight faces some potential head winds.<\/p>\n

However, before we assign O’Rourke to the political scrap heap, let me offer this brief reminder.<\/p>\n

In 2016, American voters managed to elect to the presidency a man who had never sought a public office. He had zero public service experience and zero inclination<\/em> toward serving the public. He hurled ghastly insults that offended millions of Americans while campaigning for the presidency.<\/p>\n

But … Donald Trump won the Electoral College on the strength of 78,000 votes in three key states and, thus, took office as president of the United States.<\/p>\n

Against very long odds.<\/p>\n

So, have stranger things than Beto O’Rourke winning this fall happened already?<\/p>\n

Yes. They have.<\/p>\n\n

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Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune has written a quite insightful story that starts with one of the better ledes I have read in some time. Livingston writes: It\u2019s the most backhanded of compliments. U.S. Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke‘s campaign for U.S. Senate has caught so much fire throughout the state that the new favorite betting … Continue reading O’Rourke might reshape the Texas landscape<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[7490,7043,1424,4537,5051],"class_list":["post-31621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-2018-election","tag-beto-orourke","tag-donald-trump","tag-ted-cruz","tag-us-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31621"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31623,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31621\/revisions\/31623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}