I disagree. Debates do matter, especially if they expose a presumed leading candidate as astonishingly weak. Trump flourished in them and put to bed the attempts to install El Jebbe as the designated loser for 2016.
You’re also comparing a general election win when I’m talking about the primary. Abbott faced a nutjob ultraleftist midget lesbian Latina opponent who was given very little chance of winning. All the energy of the 2018 general in TX was focused on defeating Ted Cruz by the establishment/media/pop culture backing of Beta O’Cuck, AKA Irish Boob. Cruz will not likely face such a close challenge again, the 1st Senate reelections are often the toughest race they tend to face and where Republicans have often proven quite adept at losing.
Col. West is putting his talents to use in a winnable race against a vulnerable incumbent who had a terrible mishandling of the ice storm of earlier this year.
The comparison to Alan Keyes is quite poor. Keyes was not running to win the Presidency, even his supporters would tell you that. His runs for Senator in Maryland and Illinois were not considered winnable. He’s never won office. Col. West has, and also served as TX GOP Chairman during a critical year. Keyes was lied to in agreeing to run for IL Senator, where he didn’t even live. He believed he’d be supported by the IL GOP. The corrupt RINOs in charge had no intention of giving him any support and used him to try to discredit attempts by Conservatives to win primary nominations. Far from any similarity to Col. West.
Get back to me after he gets about 20% of the vote.