Texas Monthly by R.G. Ratcliffe 9/20/2018
When Republican incumbent U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and his Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke, face off in their first debate Friday, watch as two long-winded politicians struggle for brevity. This past weekend, a reporter asked Cruz a simple question about Hurricane Harvey. His answer lasted 3 minutes, 57 seconds—which is forever on television. O’Rourke recently used 3 minutes, 38 seconds to give his defense of National Football League players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence against blacks. The abridged version of the candidates of verbosity will be the time limits set by the debate moderators. Expect the overtime buzzer to be sounding.
Cruz will have a bit of an advantage, because CNN hosted him in a series of debates with independent Bernie Sanders in 2017. And watch as Cruz tries to stamp O’Rourke as a Sanders-style liberal out of touch with mainstream Texans.
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https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/look-fridays-first-debate-ted-cruz-beto-orourke/