Posted on 11/06/2012 11:14:52 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Ted Cruz, a Harvard-educated lawyer and Tea Party icon, easily won the U.S. Senate race Tuesday night, becoming the first Hispanic from Texas to land the job.
Cruz had a huge, insurmountable lead in early returns. In early statewide returns, his total was slightly behind Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's total, but the gap represented a relatively low number of split ballots. Romney was beating President Obama by more than 15 points with about 10 percent of the precincts reporting, according to early unofficial returns.
The outcome of the U.S. Senate race was never much in doubt. Democrats havent won statewide in Texas since 1994, and Democrat Paul Sadler had so little money about 5 percent of what Cruz raised that he couldnt even afford to run a single TV ad hitting all media markets.
Sadler conceded before 9 p.m. in a brief address to supporters. At that point Cruz was winning 57-40.
"Im proud to stand in front of you and say we have a new senator-elect named Ted Cruz," Sadler said. "I want us to be proud in our response to the voters choices.
Cruz, a domestic policy adviser on George W. Bushs 2000 presidential campaign and solicitor general of Texas from 2003 to 2008, is considered a brilliant legal scholar. But this will be his first job in elective office.
The son of a Cuban immigrant, Cruz was considered a long shot when he got into a crowded Republican primary that included the deep-pocketed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
Cruz began that race on a shoestring budget and focused for months on building relationships among a far-flung network of Tea Party activists who came to make up the campaigns most die-hard supporters. They relied largely on social media and candidate forums to spread their message, hoarding their campaign money for TV ads they knew they could not run until the final few weeks of the race.
Cruzs defeat of Dewhurst in the July 31 runoff shocked the political establishment and set the stage for Cruzs easy victory Tuesday night.
Sadlers runoff with political novice Grady Yarbrough drew little interest by comparison, and only a fraction of the millions showered on the Republican primary.
A former state representative from East Texas, Sadler attempted to portray Cruz as an extremist who was out of step with mainstream Texas, even at the risk of coming across as strident and angry. In one Texas Tribune interview, Sadler took issue with Cruz's Canadian birth and his ties to Washington, saying, "He needs to go back to Washington where hes from, or Canada, because he doesnt reflect us." Later, in a debate, Sadler called Cruz a "troll," a comment he later said he regretted making.
But Sadler, like a trail of Democrats before him, got almost no traction in the electorate and even less among donors. The latest campaign finance reports show the Democratic lawyer raised $600,000, compared with some $14 million raised by Cruz.
so all I heard tonight is we need to reach out to the hispanics to ever win another general election.. ok how’s this libturds?
Rubio/Cruz 2012
now bite me
This guy will be in the mix for 2016 and would be a fantastic candidate to take back the White House as a true conservative. He is incredibly well spoken. Check out his speech at the RNC. It was the best speech of the convention and didn’t make it on the news channels. Once he gains some notoriety nationally people will see what a great conservative leader this guy could be.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wy5KYVy-kC4
He’s from Texas so he’s ‘unelectable’. We need to run a moderate so that we can win the independent vote. ;)
Cruz is such a good candidate that he got under his opponents skin enough to get him to call Cruz a troll to his face during a debate. Sadly Mittens came from the school of nice guys just like McCain. Cruz will call a spade a spade and campaign on conservative values. This guy could have a meteoric rise for our side much like Obama had if he only gets the attention he deserves nationally. He is one of the few bright spots to this election.
Indeed, I was proud to vote for him. I’d like to see him get some more experience though and run Santorum in 2016.
sorry but if we run Santorum in 2016 you’ll be seeing another loss worse than tonight.. don’t get me wrong I like him a lot but he’d never be elected
Romney brought us Indiana and North Carolina. Was it worth selling out our principles for two states?
He is much more likely to be an appointment to the USSC.
It’s the lack of ideas not a lack of money that condemns Dimocrats to defeat in Texas.
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