[Aria]

He took on the establishment on a very hard road to win and beat them handily.

Please elaborate.

[norwaypinesavage]

He took on the establishment on a very hard road to win and beat them handily. "Please elaborate"

Cruz ran against the establishment candidate and longtime Texas Lieutenant Gov. David Dewhurst. Dewhurst was supported by such establishment forces as the Bush family, and other GOP stalwarts. He ran a grass roots, tea party campaign, and won, based on messages and now kept promises.

[BlackElk]

In Texas, the most powerful office is the lieutenant governorship. Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (Do-Worst) was a self-made billionaire and Establishment Toadie. Bored being Lieutenant Governor throughout the Rick Perry years, Dewhurst decided it was time to claim a US Senate seat when Kay Bailey Hutchinson, another Establishment stooge, decided to retire. John Cornyn, yet another Establishment stooge, was looking forward to Dewhurst serving Mitvh McConnell and the US Chamber of Commerce, K Street, and Wall Street, JUST LIKE Hutchinson.

Dewhurst did his best, laid out gobs of his and other GOP-E money ($$$$$$ makes $$$$$$, after all) and initially led the polls by a humongous margin. Ted Cruz had little name recognition and less money but built an impressive ground game and dispatched Dewhurst handily. The campaign soooo damaged Dewhurst's political brand name that he was defeated for re-nomination by a 2-1 margin by a right wing (that's a good thing) state senator and radio talk show host Dan Patrick.

That's what Cruz did to the epitome of the GOP-E in Texas.