Cruz was unpopular in 2018 due to his antics with Glenn Beck and his anti-Trump stance in 2016. In addition he didn’t even campaign.
If you look at the gubernatorial race in 2018 Abbott cruised to a very comfortable 13.3% win (1.1 million votes).
I live here and have a very good feel for what happened 2 years ago...don’t listen to the media.
Abbott lost all 5 major Texas cities.
don’t listen to the media.
...
Always great advice.