Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called his challenger Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, a top 10 contender for the White House in 2020, suggesting O'Rourke's campaign for Senate is a short-term proposition.
Cruz's tweet also ridiculed for O'Rourke's moves "further left" leading to his climb up the Democratic presidential candidates, as reported from a CNN poll Sunday.
"Beto is already in top 10 Dem contenders for 2020, behind Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris & Spartacus [Cory Booker]," Cruz tweeted Sunday. "The further left he runs, the higher up he climbs. But do socialism, open borders, impeachment & angry leftist mobs really reflect common sense values of Texans?"
With O'Rourke surging behind big Democratic donor dollars – setting a Senate record, Newsmax's John Gizzi reported Monday – the one-time political outsider, Cruz, is now leaning on establishment Republicans to help him stem the blue tide in the historically red state of Texas, according to Politico.
"I think he needs all the help he can get, and he's asking for it," a veteran Houston GOP strategist told Politico. "He's never done that before."
With O'Rourke now running as the Washington outsider in this election, Cruz has had to switch gears and now show what he has done as a change agent who is now inside Washington, one of Cruz's former staffers said.
"It would be disingenuous for Cruz to campaign as an outsider when he's in there in the thick of things," GOP strategist Dave Carney told Politico.
"He was talking about the dysfunction of Washington, that nothing good was happening from his perspective, and he was going there to shake things up. There's no question he shook things up. Now he's outlining what he's delivered in the shakeup."
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