Cruz seeks Latinos’ votes in South Texas
HARLINGEN — Campaigning in the Rio Grande Valley, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz made sure audiences were clear that he is Hispanic and Democrat Beto O’Rourke is not.
During events in Laredo, Mission and Harlingen on Monday, Cruz told largely Hispanic audiences that he understands the immigrant experience and is proud of his heritage.
“I am the son of a Cuban immigrant who came here with nothing,” Cruz told more than 1,300 in the Christian Fellowship Church in Harlingen. “I’m the first Hispanic senator ever to represent Texas.”
Cruz, 47, got a big laugh when he recounted a reporter asking him whether electing O’Rourke would be good for diversity in the U.S. Senate.
Cruz’s retort: “Is there a shortage of Irishmen in the Senate?”
In other parts of the
state, Cruz is typically less blunt about being the state’s first Hispanic senator in Texas. But amid record early voting turnout in the Democrat-heavy Rio Grande Valley, Cruz made an exception during his three campaign stops there on Monday.
“Listen, the O’Rourke campaign clearly hopes voters think he’s Hispanic,” Cruz said in an interview later. “He’s not.”
O’Rourke, who speaks fluent Spanish, has faced criticism from Republicans because of his nickname. Born Robert Francis O’Rourke, he said a lot of boys in El Paso and border communities with the name Robert or Roberto or Alberto end up being called Beto for short. He said it’s a nickname he’s had ever since he can remember. On the “Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” he showed pictures of himself as a 4year-old in a sweater that had the nickname Beto sewed on it.
Cruz has been jabbing at O’Rourke’s nickname since early in the campaign.
Polls show that O’Rourke is doing substantially better with Hispanic voters in Texas than Cruz with Election Day just a week away. A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday shows 60 percent of Hispanics saying they plan to vote for O’Rourke versus 36 percent for Cruz. Still, that same poll showed Cruz beating O’Rourke by 4 percentage points.
While Texas has been a solid Republican state for the last 20 years, the Rio Grande Valley has been tough territory for most in the GOP, including Cruz. Although Cruz easily won his 2012 campaign in Texas, he lost the five counties from Laredo to Brownsville to Democrat Paul Sadler by anywhere from 19 percentage points to 61 percentage points.
O’Rourke has been in the Valley more than Cruz during the campaign, but Cruz has made several stops there, too, including one in April.
Voters are already showing up in record numbers in the Rio Grande Valley this year. In Cameron County — where Harlingen is located — almost 38,000 people cast ballots in the first 8 days of early voting. That is double the number of voters from four years ago during the last midterm elections in a county where almost 90 percent of the people are Hispanic, according to the U.S. Census.
In Hidalgo County, where Cruz later spoke in Mission, almost 80,000 people had already voted. That is also double the 2014 turnout. About 92 percent of the people there are Hispanic.
In Laredo, Cruz stressed that Hispanic communities are conservative communities that put great importance on faith, family, life and patriotism.
Cruz brushed away any suggestion that he made more of his ethnicity to appeal to voters in the Rio Grande Valley.
“I’ve told my father’s story in practically every city in Texas,” Cruz said. “The immigrant journey, coming from nothing and risking everything for freedom, is an enormous part of who I am.”
Rafael Cruz, now a pastor, fled Cuba in 1957 when he was a teenager.
Cruz also talked tough on immigration at each stop. He declared his support for building the border wall President Donald Trump has called for, and for requiring local law enforcement officials to delay the release of inmates suspected of being in the country illegally so that federal authorities can investigate. He stressed his support for the U.S. Border Patrol and talked about going out on patrol with them and seeing firsthand the dangers they encounter on the job. The National Border Patrol Council, a union for border patrol agents, endorsed Cruz early in the campaign.
Cruz contrasted his positions on immigration with those of O’Rourke, telling the crowds O’Rourke opposes the wall, which drew loud boos everywhere he went.
“Where is Beto on immigration?” Cruz said. “It is bad, bad news. So he’s against the wall. But not only is he against the wall, he says we should tear down the border walls and fences that we have already.”
Cruz supporters like Nic DeLeon, 18, said people who don’t live along the border don’t understand how much they need the border wall built.
“Every day we see the crime that comes from across the border, we see the damage illegal immigrants do to our communities,” DeLeon said.