With more money than poll support, O’Rourke sharpens campaign against Cruz
WASHINGTON — Up in the money chase, but down in the polls with two weeks to go, El Paso Democratic U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke has taken an assertive turn in his underdog challenge to Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Hit by a succession of Cruz attack ads — likely to be amplified by President Donald Trump’s rally Monday night in Houston — O’Rourke is fighting back with direct challenges to the Republican’s honesty.
Nowhere was it more evident than in their final debate Tuesday in San Antonio, when O’Rourke resurrected Trump’s “Lyin’ Ted” moniker from the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.
O’Rourke acknowledged two days later that taking a page from Trump’s playbook made him uncomfortable, even if he felt he was responding to misleading Cruz attacks suggesting that he wants to legalize heroin, take away people’s guns, or “open” the border.
“Perhaps, in the heat of the moment, I took a step too far,” O’Rourke said in a CNN town hall Thursday night in McAllen. “I don’t know that that’s the way I want to be talking in this campaign.”
But he also rolled out a series of television ads in the last week criticizing Cruz directly on education, health care and immigration, chastising his opponent for “selling paranoia and fear instead of solutions.”
O’Rourke’s new edge in the closing weeks of the race is a departure from the generally positive tone of his 18-month campaign, in which he has spoken little about Cruz, eschewed partisanship and appealed to voters’ hopes.
Many Republicans chalk it up to desperation.
“He’s taking it straight out of the Trump playbook, and the only problem is he’s not Trump,” said Texas fundraiser Mica Mosbacher, a Trump 2020 advisor and former Cruz co-chair for women.
Cruz accused O’Rourke of having “unleashed the dogs,” suggesting “their pollsters have told them they’re in trouble, and so the decision they’ve made is attack and go ugly and nasty.”
O’Rourke maintains his campaign does not use pollsters. Regardless, some Democrats say a more forceful line was always to be expected.
“I never expected anything different,” said Texas Democratic strategist Matt Angle. “If there was any kind of miscalculation within the campaign it was that somebody might have thought you wouldn’t challenge your opponent straight up.”
Political analysts say it is simply a sign that Election Day is drawing near, and that time is running out. In any campaign against a sitting senator, the conventional wisdom holds that it is up to the challenger to make the case that voters should fire the incumbent. Until now, that case has largely been made by outside groups such as the Fire Ted Cruz PAC, a group run by Dallas lawyer and Democratic donor Marc Stanley.
“We need to shake things up,” Stanley said in a recent fundraising pitch to supporters. “We need someone out there telling the truth about Ted Cruz.”
Tough-guy image
One web ad that went viral was produced by Texas native and “Boyhood” director Richard Linklater questioning Cruz’s Texas “toughness” over Trump’s insults to Cruz’s family during the 2016 GOP primaries.
O’Rourke’s ads, in contrast, have until recently featured soaring soundbites and extended montages of his travels around the state, emphasizing his willingness to “show up” in all 254 Texas counties — a fairly mild reminder of Cruz’s 99-county tour of Iowa during his 2016 White House bid.
Democratic consultants also believe that Cruz, known better for his partisan fervor than congeniality, provides a ready target for a more hard-edged approach.
“Nobody plays the role of the bad guy in a drama better than Ted Cruz,” Angle said.
Republicans say Cruz can stand on his conservative credentials alone.
“I used to say he may not be everyone’s favorite drinking partner, but he is Texans’ favorite designated driver,” Mosbacher said.
For O’Rourke, who has sworn to elevate his campaign above the meanness of modern politics, a more confrontational style is not without risk, undermining an upbeat, sunny disposition he has cultivated on the campaign trail.
“It clearly is a sign of desperation,” said Texas Republican Party Chairman James Dickey, who believes O’Rourke’s policy agenda is too liberal for the state.
Some Democrats say that with partisan divisions hardening in the race, and few undecided voters left to persuade, O’Rourke needs to super-charge his campaign by putting his differences with Cruz into sharper contrast.
“He’s doing exactly what he needs to do,” said Democratic strategist Harold Cook, former executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. “If there is room to get into the lead in this race, I think that’s the way he does it.”
O’Rourke’s new ads, however critical of Cruz, still emphasize policy differences, not personal attacks. There is none of the eerie music or grainy black-and-white imagery that is the hallmark of negative political advertising.
