Opinion
Let's get real about Beto O'Rourke winning Texas
By Salena Zito
September 22, 2018 | 1:26pm | Updated
The toughest opponent is the one you don’t see coming.
Sen. Ted Cruz is the political heavyweight champ in his home state of Texas. In 2012, his long-shot run that defeated then-Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was nothing short of a miracle. His fame swelled when he famously filibustered for 21 hours on the Senate floor and championed a government shutdown over spending, moves that made him the conservative favorite in the 2016 presidential election.
Now Cruz is facing a new kind of challenger in Beto O’Rourke, who’s bolted out of the blue and throwing a different kind of punch.
In many ways, the rise of O’Rourke echoes that of Barack Obama in 2004.
Both men are charismatic, with interesting life stories. O’Rourke grew up in El Paso, played bass in the rock band Foss, went to Columbia University and returned home after a couple of years to co-found his own software company. The 45-year-old O’Rourke walks with a swagger, skateboards in restaurant parking lots, pulls all-nighters on the road, is up-front about youthful indiscretions and shoots iPhone videos that become 30-second ads — all making good copy for reporters and providing hope for Texan Democrats, who have been in the political desert here since 1994, the last time a Dem held statewide office.
more
https://nypost.com/2018/09/22/the-rise-of-beto-orourke-is-mostly-a-media-fantasy/
