How Ted Cruz held off Beto O’Rourke in Texas

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D) generated far more buzz and cash than Sen. Ted Cruz (R), but he couldn’t muster quite enough votes to topple the incumbent in the reliably Republican state.

That the charismatic O’Rourke even made it a close race was a testament to his campaign strategy and ability to excite grassroots voters. O’Rourke showed up in every one of the state’s 254 districts during his campaign, drew huge crowds at rallies and raised more than $70 million — more than double Cruz’s total — despite accepting no money from PACs or special interests.

But Cruz never trailed in a major poll, and he won by three percentage points, outperforming O’Rourke in rural and suburban areas that have been conservative Republican strongholds for decades. His victory solidifies his influence in a state where his party swept every statewide race, just as it has done for decades.

It was a much closer margin than either his 2012 election, which Cruz won by 16 percentage points, or the 2016 presidential election, in which Donald Trump won the state by nine points. O’Rourke did help shift Texas’s congressional delegation; Democrats picked up three seats, ousting longtime Dallas-area Pete Sessions and two others.

O’Rourke needed huge turnout from groups that do not traditionally flock to the polls, such as young voters and people who live in predominantly Hispanic areas. Some of those are near his home turf of El Paso and around the border cities of Laredo and McAllen.

According to results from AP VoteCast, a survey of 3,776 Texas voters, both of those groups voted for O’Rourke by a factor of 2 to 1, but it wasn’t enough to overcome Cruz’s dominance among older white voters in rural areas who tend to vote in high numbers.