{"id":32292,"date":"2018-09-12T23:58:26","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T23:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=32292"},"modified":"2018-09-12T23:58:26","modified_gmt":"2018-09-12T23:58:26","slug":"democrats-looking-for-an-actual-victory-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=32292","title":{"rendered":"Democrats looking for an actual victory in Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beto_and_Cruz_new_MKC_BD_TT.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-31303\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beto_and_Cruz_new_MKC_BD_TT-300x201.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"201\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beto_and_Cruz_new_MKC_BD_TT-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beto_and_Cruz_new_MKC_BD_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beto_and_Cruz_new_MKC_BD_TT-1024x686.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Beto_and_Cruz_new_MKC_BD_TT.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A &#8220;moral victory&#8221; in Texas won&#8217;t be good enough for Democrats who now are officially licking their chops at the prospect of knocking off a first-term Republican U.S. senator.<\/p>\n<p>Beto O&#8217;Rourke is challenging Ted Cruz. The fact that Texas&#8217;s U.S. Senate seat is part of the national discussion on the eve of the midterm election is stunning enough all by itself.<\/p>\n<p>However, O&#8217;Rourke and his supporters aren&#8217;t likely to settle for coming close to Cruz. They think now they have a chance to actually knock the Cruz Missile off his launch pad.<\/p>\n<p>Poll after public opinion poll is saying essentially the same thing: O&#8217;Rourke has closed the gap to a dead heat, enabling the challenger to chip away at what was supposed to be an insurmountable lead in this most Republican of states.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans believe the race is still Cruz&#8217;s to lose. I&#8217;m not sure about that. I cannot predict that O&#8217;Rourke will win. I am reading the same polls that others are reading. I am not involved in the campaign. I don&#8217;t know what the O&#8217;Rourke troops are doing in the field.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m just astonished that O&#8217;Rourke is continuing the strategy he has employed since the beginning of the fall campaign: He is traveling to rural counties, talking to voters one on one. He continues to visit counties where Cruz figures to do well. He is taking the fight straight to the incumbent.<\/p>\n<p>As for Cruz, he has gone negative. O&#8217;Rourke hasn&#8217;t yet gone there. I don&#8217;t yet know what his plans are as Election Day draws near. Hey, I&#8217;m just a spectator out here, watching this race unfold right along with the rest of the state.<\/p>\n<p>My gut tells me that a &#8220;moral victory&#8221; won&#8217;t be enough. If, after all this campaigning has ended, and Beto O&#8217;Rourke falls short of Ted Cruz&#8217;s vote total &#8212; even if it&#8217;s by just a handful of ballots &#8212; I fully expect there to be profound disappointment.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Wait&#8217;ll next time&#8221; won&#8217;t be good enough to assuage the wounds.<\/p>\n<p>O&#8217;Rourke wants it. <em>Bigly.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A &#8220;moral victory&#8221; in Texas won&#8217;t be good enough for Democrats who now are officially licking their chops at the prospect of knocking off a first-term Republican U.S. senator. Beto O&#8217;Rourke is challenging Ted Cruz. The fact that Texas&#8217;s U.S. Senate seat is part of the national discussion on the eve of the midterm election &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=32292\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Democrats looking for an actual victory in Texas<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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":[18],"tags":[7043,1941,4537,4603,5051],"class_list":["post-32292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-beto-orourke","tag-gop","tag-ted-cruz","tag-texas-democrats","tag-us-senate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32292","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=32292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32293,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32292\/revisions\/32293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}