Texas is still a red state. It might be lighter shade of red, but it’s still red.
We learned a lot in a long day of reporting around the Houston area on Monday. After some interesting conversations with local voters (see earlier post), it was time to catch up with the candidates themselves.
First stop: Cruz headquarters. Incumbent Senator Ted Cruz was on a particularly tight schedule, but he squeezed in a one-on-one interview with FOX Business just before flying from Houston to Dallas for a fundraiser with Vice President Mike Pence.
Here’s what we learned from Cruz:
• He thinks the battle over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has energized his supporters. Cruz told me, “The good news in Texas is there are a whole lot more conservatives than liberals. This election is all about turnout. If we turnout common-sense conservatives, we’ll win and I think the Kavanaugh battle has energized a lot of conservatives.”
• Cruz thinks the race was so close to begin with because his supporters had become complacent. He explains it by saying, “Politics can be strange. Success can bread complacency. The danger in this race is that a West Texas oil worker, his job is going great, he’s focused on going to work and going to church and taking care of his kids. And Election Day comes along, the urgency may not be there and he or she stays home.”
• Cruz says “anger is a good motivator” and he feels like Republicans are now angry enough to vote, thanks in large part to the Kavanaugh hearings.
• Bottom line from Cruz Camp: this race is close for Texas, but they think they will hang on and win re-election.
As soon as the Cruz interview wrapped, our crew was on a mission to find and speak to the candidate everyone around here seems to be talking about: Rep. Beto O’Rourke. As a side note, when I say “crew,” I’m referring to our talented team: producer Erin McEwan, photographer Ben West and our “sound guy” Chris Chimenti.
Rep. O’Rourke is a Democrat from El Paso, who has made a habit of selling out rallies on college campuses, and brags about having visited every county in Texas during his campaign. Whatever happens in November, he’s already surpassed any realistic expectation for a Democrat running in Texas in 2018. A Dem hasn’t won a statewide race here since 1994. Still, there are many questions surrounding the Beto campaign. Yes, he’s popular with young people. That’s great, but young people aren’t exactly the most reliable when it comes to turning out to vote. I wanted to ask him about that, but unfortunately we were told by his campaign he wouldn’t be available for a Fox Business interview. Sometimes, though, you just show up and hope for the best. That’s what we did. We showed up.
When we arrived at Lone Star College, the gym was starting to fill up. Hundreds of college students rolled in. Many were wearing t-shirts with “Beto” across the chest. Beto himself walked in shortly thereafter, wearing a button down dress shirt he was already sweating through, and a Lone Star College baseball hat. He focused much of his speech on the benefits of immigration. Then, he moved on to turnout. He pointed out Texas ranks last in the nation in voter turnout. “This is by design,” Beto told the crowd. “This is on purpose.” The college kids ate it up. But will they show up for him next month?
After the rally, we were told Beto would do some interviews with the college newspaper and the local press outfits, but us “national types” were last on the list. As it turned out, we walked over to the bookstore and Beto was holding court with a small group of supporters and some reporters. After a few questions from one of the locals, Ben West and I stepped up with our camera and microphone. We quickly introduced ourselves and started asking questions. Beto, to his credit, answered them without hesitation.
Here’s what we learned from Beto:
• How does he think Kavanaugh will impact the race? “I don’t know,” answered Beto. That’s already a strange answer from a politician. He then said he’s looking to represent “all Texans” on all the big issues - whether that be the next Supreme Court justice, health care or education. And then he added, “I feel good about this.”
• Feel is a big part of Operation Beto. He hasn’t hired a pollster. From what we could tell, he doesn’t even have an experienced staff of political operatives around him. If he did, one of them probably would have tried to stop us from interviewing him without an appointment to do so.
• He’s running as a liberal in deep red Texas, but he doesn’t necessarily talk that way. He speaks about reaching out to Republicans, and when I asked him about his “liberal” economics, he responded with a shot at President Trump’s trade policies. “When I visit farmers with farmers who have seen reciprocal tariffs levied on the pecans that they’re growing, I don’t know what party affiliation they are, but I know that tariffs and trade wars are bad for this state more than many others.”
Bottom line after our Monday on the campaign trail: Texas is still a red state, and Senator Ted Cruz is hoping it’s just red enough for him to win a second term.
The next stop for us is Knoxville, Tennessee. The Senate race there between Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former Governor Phil Bredesen is so close that Taylor Swift felt the need to weigh-in. She’s for the Democrat Bredesen.
We have an interview lined up with Blackburn, but not yet with Taylor Swift (or Bredesen for that matter). I’m told Taylor is on tour, otherwise I’m sure she’d love to speak with me.
We’ll report back from Tennessee ahead of a debate between the two candidates scheduled for Wednesday evening. Go Vols!
