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Tea party-backed Ted Cruz has defeated Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.

Polls close at 7PM Central.

Saw this tweet from Michael Berry on Monday: @MichaelBerrysho Reports abound that desperate Dewhurst has a robocall out that says "this is Sarah Palin & I'm supporting Dewhurst" LIAR! Palin supports Cruz

Texas' intensely watched Republican U.S. Senate runoff tonight will be a stunner no matter how it turns out. Political newcomer Ted Cruz could defeat Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a well-known and well-funded GOP officeholder, and provide tea party activists across the country another high-profile victory. An outside poll released late Sunday indicated that Cruz had a solid 10-point lead over Dewhurst. But Dewhurst, who has the support of Gov. Rick Perry and other top Texas political leaders, could still snatch a victory from the tea party. He has poured $19 million of his own personal fortune into the race, and...

Come November, I hope Democrat Paul Sadler will be the new junior U.S. Senator of Texas. Sadler is a self-proclaimed Progressive with a proven track record behind his liberal Democrat label. But, despite my hopes, recent Texas electoral history and the state’s political climate suggest the November election will not send Sadler to Washington, D.C. So, Progressive Democrats should participate in tomorrow’s Republican Primary Runoff between former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst. For Progressive Democrats, David Dewhurst is the best option.

Come November, I hope Democrat Paul Sadler will be the new junior U.S. Senator of Texas. Sadler is a self-proclaimed Progressive with a proven track record behind his liberal Democrat label. But, despite my hopes, recent Texas electoral history and the state’s political climate suggest the November election will not send Sadler to Washington, D.C. So, Progressive Democrats should participate in tomorrow’s Republican Primary Runoff between former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst. For Progressive Democrats, David Dewhurst is the best option. Dewhurst publicly affirmed his support for a guest-worker program in 2007. His more recent...

Eighteen months ago, Ted Cruz was a starry-eyed Texas Republican with long-shot hopes of becoming a United States senator. On Tuesday, the former state solicitor general looks headed to an unlikely runoff victory over Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, win that would defy the power of the state’s GOP establishment. ((snip)) So how did Cruz stay competitive and even climb into what looks like the driver’s seat? He leveraged national acclaim from conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and George Will into strong local tea party support, winning an impressive 34 percent of the primary vote and forcing a runoff against...

A Public Policy Polling poll released Sunday evening reports Ted Cruz has a 52 percent to 42 percent advantage over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst on the eve of Tuesday’s Texas GOP Senate runoff. From PPP’s analysis: Cruz's victory is driven by 4 things: the Tea Party, the enthusiasm of his supporters, a generational divide within the Texas Republican ranks, and the lack of regard the party base currently holds for Rick Perry. Cruz is ahead by a whooping 75-22 margin with Tea Party voters, more than making up for a 56-39 deficit to Dewhurst with voters who don't consider themselves...

PublicPolicyPolling � @ppppolls Cruz is up 55-40 with those who already voted so Dewhurst really needs a huge election day turnout to have any chance Also...FYI.... 31% of Texas runoff voters more likely to support a Palin endorsed candidate to only 16% for one backed by Perry

Initially I was a Cruz supporter, but as the campaign rolled on and I found out that Cruz is a trial lawyer, I was skeptical, but I still supported Cruz, because he said the right things. Still, though, saying the right things cannot hide your initial background, a trial lawyer=community activist. As in all elections, the choice is the lesser of two evils, and a businessman is a lesser evil than a trial lawyer.

AUSTIN — Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst says he never felt the need to seek the support of key tea party leaders nationwide because, “I’ve been focused on Texans.” Asked about former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and other grassroots darlings coming to Dallas and The Woodlands this week to campaign for Ted Cruz, his Republican opponent for U.S. Senate, Dewhurst said, “I’ve never gone and asked for their help.”

Comptroller Susan Combs on Thursday added her name to the long list of Texas elected officials who are backing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in his bid for the U.S. Senate. Dewhurst has been “relentless and focused on conservative principles,” said Combs, who credited the lieutenant governor for putting Texas in a strong economic position. “Fighting for principle is not always easy and it is not always visible,” Combs said at an Austin news conference. “I will tell you that actions speak a lot louder than words.” The low-key news conference at Run-Tex on Riverside Drive stands in stark contrast to...

We are asking all Tea Party supporters to help us make TONIGHT'S Ted Cruz Telethon a success! Our 2 hour Ted Cruz Telethon TONIGHT is critically important to ensuring that conservative Ted Cruz is elected to the U.S. Senate as funds raised will go directly to airing our 'Tea Party Supports Ted Cruz' TV ad.  This ad is vital to combating the establishment and D.C. SuperPAC funded attack ads on Cruz. With the Telethon TONIGHT from 8-10 Central Time, there are a couple of ways in which you can help.  ____________________________________________________________________________ 1. SPREAD THE WORD Forward this email to all your...

Dewhurst's Allies Are Throwing The Kitchen Sink At Cruz: The main super PAC supporting Dewhurst, the Texas Conservatives Fund, released a harsh new TV ad on Tuesday which can be best described as a political Hail Mary Pass. The spot ties Cruz to the suicide of a teenager (the boy's mother is featured in the ad) who served time in a juvenile detention center. But to say the connection is a stretch would be an understatement. Cruz defended a Pennsylvania developer in a judicial but not a corruption...... Cruz's Fundraising: Cruz outraised Dewhurst during the May 10-June 30 period, bringing...

I understand, from a far distance, that the anti-Ted Cruz ads have been pretty brutal. This report by National Journal, Four Signs of Cruz-mentum, indicates the last few days will be the worst yet: The spot ties Cruz to the suicide of a teenager (the boy’s mother is featured in the ad) who served time in a juvenile detention center. But to say the connection is a stretch would be an understatement. Cruz defended a Pennsylvania developer in a judicial corruption scandal, but not on a criminal matter. The super PAC’s decision to double down on the weak connection the...

Texas US Senate Debate on Texas FOX StationsTed Cruz vs. David DewhurstLIVE STREAM

Take a Stand with Ted Cruz Tea Party Express is hosting a two-hour long ‘Take a Stand with Ted Cruz’ Radiothon next Wednesday, July 25th in Dallas, Texas on KLIF 570 AM to help us elect the next Tea Party Senator, Ted Cruz!Hosts: Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer and Tea Party Express singer and entertainer Kay Rivoli will host the event, and will be joined by some of the nation’s most influential Tea Party leaders and politicians who also proudly stand with Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate. It is crucial that tea party activists and leaders from across...

We finished our new 'Tea Party Supports Ted Cruz' TV ad just in time as early voting starts today! We finished our new 'Tea Party Supports Ted Cruz' TV ad just in time as early voting starts today!Dear Friends,Thanks to your passion and generous support, we reached our fundraising goal and worked over the weekend to complete our new 'Tea Party Supports Ted Cruz' TV ad that highlights that Cruz is the true conservative that will fight for our Tea Party values,  Here it is, what do you think?Click here to play We finished the ad just in time as...

From the Dallas Morning News (no link) Dewhurst accepted a debate at the last minute with Cruz at a Tea Party event. There is strong evidence that Dewhurst's constant harping on China connections and negative ads are hurting Dewhurst, and that he has lost the conservatives in Texas. It has gotten so bad that the jokes are along the line of " Ted Cruz supports theChinese. He was seen at a Panda drive-through". Not one ad by Dewhurst giving a positive reason to vote for him.

The run-off election between Ted Cruz and David Dewhurst is July 31st. Conventional wisdom says whoever wins that race will also win in November and be the state's next U.S. Senator. Joe Householder, with Purple Strategies, is quick to point out he's a Democrat. But as a political strategist he says this run-off is working in Cruz's favor. "Run-offs, especially on the Republican side, are the elections that usually draw people, the kind of folks who I like to say drive by the school every Saturday to make sure there's not an election. And those are the folks that Ted...

I have always had a lot of respect for the guys who are running David Dewhurst’s campaign, but I’m starting to see now why Rick Perry had no chance of getting elected President. The same team running Dewhurst’s campaign ran Perry’s Presidential campaign and has stooped to what I thought would be an impossible low. Contra the headline at CNN.com, David Dewhurst actually raised less money than Ted Cruz. Dewhurst had to pump over $4 million into his campaign to save face and win the media spin that he outpaced Cruz. In fact, Cruz has raised $1.7 million and Dewhurst...

Anti-Cruz SuperPAC Receives $2.5 Million - We Must Fight Back!Dear Friends, Just as we predicted, with the news of Tea Party candidate Ted Cruz's good poll numbers in the Texas US Senate race, the 'business as usual' political establishment is in a panic and has dumped $2.5 million into an anti-Cruz SuperPAC to try and take out our candidate with two weeks left in the race.AP PhotoIt is clear that momentum is on our side, but we can't let up with 15 DAYS to go until this important election.  The Dewhurst campaign and his political establishment backers are in...

"For the first time in their long campaign slog, independent polls are showing the so-called movement candidate, tea party favorite Ted Cruz, leading the GOP establishment favorite, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. They are trying to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate and face off once again in the July 31 runoff election. “If less than a million people vote and Cruz wins, he’s likely to have coattails,” said Mustafa Tameez, a Houston political consultant. “He’ll pull in a lot of the movement candidates.” Cruz has insisted all along that his supporters have the enthusiasm, and a new survey...

In a poll released Thursday by Public Policy Polling, former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz leads Lt. Governor David Dewhurst 49-44 in the Republican primary runoff for the U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz leads 59-36 among voters "very excited" about voting in the election. Dewhurst leads 70-20 among moderate voters. The PPP report noted that runoff elections are notoriously difficult to poll, but that Cruz' chances look good based on his lead in the poll and his substantial lead with voters most likely to vote in the election, the "very excited voters."

PPP's first poll of the Texas Senate runoff finds Ted Cruz with a surprising 49-44 lead and a much more enthusiastic cadre of supporters than former front runner David Dewhurst. Cruz's lead expands to a whooping 59-36 margin over Dewhurst among voters who describe themselves as 'very excited' about voting in the election. The lower turnout is, the better Cruz's chances will be. Dewhurst leads 51-43 with 'somewhat excited' voters and 50-36 with those who say they are 'not that excited.' The big question is whether those less enthused folks will actually bother to turn out or not. This race...

What else is he hiding? Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst’s Senate campaign might have just crossed a line it should not have crossed. Who else would be behind the Lt. Governor’s taxpayer funded website for his Lieutenant Governor’s Office suddenly deleting the transcript of a speech proving David Dewhurst has been lying about his position on illegal aliens? The speech is . . . well . . . it is gone. Poof. Again, the website is taxpayer funded and the document suddenly no longer there directly contradicted Dewhurst’s present statements on immigration in the Senate campaign. Now, David Dewhurst adamantly...

Updated, 6:09 p.m. The Texas Republican establishment on Sunday came out hard against former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz (R) in his upstart Senate bid. Nearly every state Senator signed an open letter addressed to “Fellow Texans” that offered a defense of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who is running against Cruz in a July 31 GOP primary runoff to replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R). The letter never once mentions Cruz by name. But it makes clear the state Senators’ displeasure with statements he has made on sanctuary cities, state spending, the state’s Transportation Security Administration “Anti-Groping” bill and...

. . . a recent internal poll conducted for the Cruz for Senate campaign shows Ted leading Dewhurst 49-40. Ted is leading Dewhurst among nearly every sub-group. Importantly, Ted is dominating self-identified “Tea Party” and “Very Conservative” voters. Among the 50% of likely runoff voters who are Tea Party aligned, Ted leads 72-22. Among the 60% who are very conservative, Ted leads 58-33.

One of the Tea Party's most critical battles is heating up in Texas, where two conservative Republicans will slug it out for their party's Senate nomination later this month. State and national Tea Party groups are backing former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, who they hope will join a small but growing group of U.S. senators aligned with the conservative movement and pushing an agenda of less government spending, lower taxes and fewer regulations. Cruz faces David Dewhurst, the state's lieutenant governor, in a July 31 runoff election after finishing at the top of the May 29 primary. Dewhurst beat...

Republican candidates in the highly-anticipated Texas U.S. Senate race will square off in The Texas Debates: Race for U.S. Senate on Friday, June 22, 2012, at 8:00 pm CDT. The live debate between Ted Cruz, former Texas Solicitor General, and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst will be broadcast to millions on television, radio and the Internet. Live Streaming on:C-SPAN12newsnowand others at the link.Candidate Websites:Ted CruzDavid Dewhurst

The addition of former Perry presidential campaign spokesman Mark Miner to Senate hopeful David Dewhurst’s campaign means that the three most important positions in the Dewhurst bid to go to Washington are held by Perry people. Dewhurst, who’s in a battle with former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz for Texas’ open U.S. Senate seat, has former Perry strategist Dave Carney as his senior campaign adviser. A pro-Dewhurst super PAC, Texas Conservatives Fund, is run by Rob Johnson, who managed Perry’s 2010 re-election campaign and worked in his failed presidential effort in the 2012 cycle. Miner, another Perry presidential campaign worker...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry was booed at the state GOP convention Thursday when he mentioned his support for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst’s candidacy for Senate...Dewhurst is facing former state Solicitor General Ted Cruz in a run-off election for the Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz has largely drawn support from more conservative elements of the party.

Upon Chief Justice Taney’s death, President Lincoln was tasked with replacing the Chief Justice of SCOTUS.  Monty Blair had served as a loyal friend throughout Lincoln’s first administration.  Likewise, Edward Bates had proven his loyalty to Lincoln over-and-over again.  Both were well qualified men.  Both greatly desired the position.  Yet, in the end, Lincoln knew that there was but one choice that would best serve the Union.  He knew that although Salmon Chase had essentially been dismissed from his Cabinet in disgrace and although Chase had been anything but loyal to Mr. Lincoln, Chase was an abolitionist and the one...

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has strong support from repeated Republican primary voters as well as senior citizens, two groups that are more likely to turn out for a July runoff for U.S. Senate, according to a Dewhurst campaign memo written by pollster Mike Baselice. Supporters of former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz, a tea party favorite who placed second in Tuesday’s vote, have argued that Cruz would be favored in a runoff because his supporters are more enthusiastic and likely to show up for an unusual, mid-summer vote. So the Baselice memo was clearly intended to rebut that argument. Recent...

The battle to be the Texas GOP Senate nominee is this year’s most important Senate election. Tea Party backed Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz overcame long odds on Tuesday, and forced establishment favorite Lt. Governor David Dewhurst into a runoff in the race for the open Texas U.S. Senate seat. "Dewhurst failed to get a majority because he failed to fight for conservative principles. His false attacks backfired," Senator Jim DeMint, a Cruz supporter, tweeted Tuesday night. According to The Dallas Morning News, Dewhurst, who spent more than $20 million of personal funds to get elected lieutenant governor in 2002,...

The Texas Republican Senate primary is headed for a runoff, after Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst fell just shy of 50 percent of the vote Tuesday. Dewhurst will face former state solicitor general Ted Cruz, a favorite of the tea party, in the July 31 runoff. The winner of that runoff will be a heavy favorite to succeed retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), after Democrats failed to land a top-tier recruit. With 43 percent of precincts reporting, Dewhurst led Cruz 46 percent to 32 percent. Seven other candidates split the vote enough, though, to push the two into a runoff.

With the Texas state primary just days away, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is in the lead to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison in the U.S. Senate, and according to some observers, one of the factors he has working in his favor is fear. In Texas, the lieutenant governorship is a hugely powerful position. Its occupant is the leader of the state senate, meaning he appoints committee chairmen and members, determines the order in which bills are taken up, and decides which committees get to handle specific pieces of legislation. At the very least, everyone has to be aware of the sway...

A new poll of the Texas Republican Senate primary race shows conservative candidate Ted Cruz surging to nearly within the margin of error against moderate establishment front-runner David Dewhurst.  The University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll shows Dewhurst at 40 percent and Cruz at 31 percent. Cruz had been trailing the self-financed Dewhurst by over 20 percent, so this poll shows him closing strong.  Early voting started last week in Texas, and the primary is on Tuesday, May 29. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote on Tuesday, the top-two vote getters will be in a run-off...

Ted Cruz won’t go to the U.S. Senate to get along in the U.S. Senate, the candidate told Gregg County Republicans on Wednesday in Longview. “We need to draw a line in the sand,” the Republican told some 40 party members, after recalling a Dallas Morning News editorial panel asking about the need for compromise in Washington, D.C. “At this point, I literally laughed out loud,” Cruz said. “If you’re looking for an established moderate who will go to Washington and work across the aisle and compromise, and continue this spending and building the debt deeper ... I’m not the...

In the Republican primary, the competition for the U.S. Senate nomination is a race to the right and a crowded one at that. Though there are nine candidates in the race, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is the best known and certainly the best financed. Dewhurst acts like the chosen one, but GOP voters looking for a no pretense, no apologies conservative found one in challenger Ted Cruz. [Snip] Cruz has a big intellect and doesn't mind taking it for a spin around the room. He's smart; he knows it and you know it within minutes of talking to him. Yet,...

A super PAC supporting Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst's Senate campaign has released an internal poll showing him at 57 percent in the GOP race with less than three weeks left until the primary. The poll shows Dewhurst at 57 percent, followed by Ted Cruz at 16 percent, Tom Leppert at 12 percent, and Craig James at 4 percent. Eleven percent were undecided. If Dewhurst finishes with over 50 percent of the vote on May 29, he wins the nomination outright. If not, the top two finishers will advance to a July 31 runoff. The Perception Insight poll of 800...

Texas’s Ted Cruz has come a long way in his quest to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison in the United States Senate. He has spent the better part of the last year slowly closing the polling gap with his principal rival, the better-known lieutenant governor David Dewhurst, to the point that a runoff between the two now seems the likeliest of outcomes in the May 29 primary. But finishing a strong second isn’t an outcome worthy of an articulate, principled conservative such as Cruz. He can and should win a runoff with Dewhurst, become the Republican nominee, and be elected the...

Gov. Rick Perry left no doubt this time. In Plano on Wednesday, Perry told KTVT-TV (Channel 11) reporter Jack Fink that he's backing Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for Texas' open seat in the U.S. Senate. "The fact is I'm a loyal individual, if I'm nothing else, and David's been a loyal supporter of mine," Perry said. "And I in turn am a loyal supporter of him and his task to become the next U.S. senator from Texas." On Jan. 2, while campaigning in Iowa on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, then-presidential candidate Perry gave Dewhurst, who was standing behind...

Texas Gov. Rick Perry this morning endorsed David Dewhurst for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison... In a tweet this morning, Dewhurst (@DavidHDewhurst) declared, “I’m honored that veteran and conservative champion @GovernorPerry is endorsing our campaign for U.S. Senate"... Perry praised Dewhurst’s loyalty and said he was glad to return the favor.

Texas Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, a Republican, went rogue this morning on Houston's KTRH 740 radio. "I'm supporting Rick Perry for president. We agree on so, so many things. But on the case of in-state tuition, where folks are here illegally, I have a real problem," Dewhurst said. Dewhurst is running for the U.S. Senate to replace outgoing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. This is a case of Dewhurst wanting to distance himself from the issue that has plagued Texas Governor Rick Perry with the conservative base of the G.O.P. Dewhurst is in a five-way race to win the Senate nomination...

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is breaking with Gov. Rick Perry by opposing in-state college tuition rates for illegal immigrants. Dewhurst, running for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison, says he understands Perry's arguments but says his stance is all about fairness.

"He (Sen. Ogden) had been considered a possible candidate for lieutenant governor if incumbent David Dewhurst wins his race for the U.S. Senate in 2012. By law, Dewhurst's replacement would be a sitting senator voted on by his colleagues. The chosen person could then immediately be promoted to governor if Gov. Rick Perry is successful in his race for the White House. If that happened, the Senate would choose another of its members to be lieutenant governor. But Ogden said that he doesn't think that he can be that choice now that he isn't running for re-election."

The movement to draft Tommy Lee Jones to run as a Democrat to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison is most likely doomed to failure, but a new poll shows Jones might be a viable candidate. Public Policy Polling released its survey today on the 2012 Senate race, and it shows Jones with the best favorable/unfavorable combo among possible candidates. It also shows he is within range of two Republican candidates, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert, in head-to-head matchups. Dewhurst beats him 43-39 percent, and Leppert by only 38-37. "A Jones candidacy is probably a pipe dream...

Texas lawmakers may reconsider a bill to outlaw controversial airport pat-downs, the sponsor of legislation that was shelved recently said this week. Texas state Rep. David Simpson (R) said that Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst asked Gov. Rick Perry to include the measure in a special session of the Texas legislature. Dewhurst reported asked lawmakers to withdraw the bill when federal officials threatened to cancel flights to Texas if it passed. But he has since had a change of heart, Simpson told fans on his Facebook page. "The Lt. Gov. sent a letter to Gov. Perry asking him to include...

A boisterous group of protesters angry over the Texas Senate’s failure to vote on the airport groping bill tried to enter the public gallery this afternoon and were blocked by state troopers. Shouting “treason” and “cowards” and carrying signs and placards, and led by radio talk show host Alex Jones, the group of perhaps as many as 100 people entered the State Capitol shortly after 3 p.m. and first went to the House chamber. There, House members quickly informed the shouting group that it was the Senate that had failed to take action late Tuesday on House Bill 1937, which...