O’Rourke appears ready to announce challenge to Cruz
Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke, (D) El Paso, says he is planning a campaign announcement Friday amid reports he will challenge GOP Sen. Ted Cruz for re-election next year.
O’Rourke confirmed to ABC-7 in a text Wednesday afternoon that the announcement is scheduled for Friday morning. He said it was important for him to share the decision with El Paso first.
ABC-7 spoke with the chair of the UTEP Political Science department about the Democrat’s chances in a Republican state.
“It’s clearly a challenge, because if you’re in the Dallas/San Antonio/Houston areas, these metroplexes, you’re not going to be as well known if you’re out here in El Paso,” Boehmer said. “Unless he really grows drastically in notoriety and starts to have positive publicity, he’s just not going to be well known against Ted Cruz, who’s extremely well known.”
Boehmer pointed out that O’rourke did help himself with his recent bipartisan road trip with Republican Congressman Rep. Will Hurd, streamed live on Facebook, which attracted national attention.
“You can see that he’s been setting the table for running in a few ways,” Boehmer said. “The car ride back to Washington with Will Hurd was a nice bipartisan opportunity, obviously to kind of get some notoriety and such.”
O’Rourke has traveled to several Texas cities over the past couple weeks and has scheduled meet and greet and fundraiser stops in Dallas, Waco, Austin and Houston in the next few days.
But before Cruz, O’rourke could face a big challenge in the Democratic Primary from San Antionio’s Joaquin Castro, who visited El Paso recently.
“It would have to be a really bad season for the Republicans to probably lose that senate seat to a Democrat, no matter whether its one of the Castro brothers or Beto O’Rourke, but you never know,” Boehmer said with a laugh. “The political outcomes of the last election were not very well predicted by a lot of pundits.”
Other possible Cruz senate challengers, in addition to O’rourke and Castro, include Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, as well as GOP political strategist Matthew Dowd, who is considering an independent bid against Cruz.
O’Rourke insisted Cruz is vulnerable despite his high name ID and his national profile. O’Rourke also said he has spoken with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who oversees the party’s recruitment efforts.
