O’rourke goes after Cruz in debate
Revives ‘Lyin’ nickname in quest for Senate seat
SAN ANTONIO — Democrat Beto O’rourke abandoned his usual message of unity and optimism on Tuesday and laid into Ted Cruz, hoping to reverse polls that show him fading against the Republican incumbent during the second debate of a Senate race that’s become one of the nation’s most closely watched.
During the opening moments, Cruz criticized O’rourke for past votes supporting a never-enacted oil production tax that might have hit oil-rich Texas hard.
O’rourke responded by evoking a moniker Donald Trump bestowed on the senator when the pair were bitter rivals during the 2016 Republican presidential primary, saying, “Senator Cruz is not going to be honest with you. He’s going to make up positions and votes that I’ve never held.”
“It’s why the president called him Lyin’ Ted,” O’rourke said “and its why the nickname stuck because it’s true.”
A former Ivy League debate champion, Cruz shot back, “It’s clear Congressman O’rourke’s pollsters have told him to come out on the attack.”
Polls that once showed O’rourke within striking distance of a monumental upset now suggest Cruz might be edging further ahead. No Democrat has won any of Texas’ nearly 30 statewide offices since 1994, the country’s longest political losing streak.
With Election Day three weeks away, Tuesday might be one of O’rourke’s last shots to gain ground. It was the race’s last scheduled debate after one in Houston was canceled amid Senate floor votes on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
Cruz wants to participate in a previously scheduled town hall event featuring just O’rourke in the U.s.-mexico border city of Mcallen on Thursday night, but it’s unclear if that will come together in time.
The pair used this matchup to clash on abortion regulations, climate change, the nomination of Kavanaugh and a border wall backed by the Trump administration.
Things never got nasty or overly personal — the borrowed “Lyin’ Ted” was the only name-calling — but both candidates tried to impress voters by criticizing their opponent’s records.