Down South, they usually weigh the Republican votes rather than counting them, but this year things could be different. Those States have been affected by Trump's many controversies and several safe Republican seats could be in play in this year's mid-terms.
One such seat is that of our old friend Ted Cruz, whose Senate seat comes up this year. On Tuesday night, Beto O'Rourke won the Texas Democrat Primary (where the turnout was double that of Democrat votes in 2016) and became the only obstruction to Ted's re-election.
On Wednesday, the Cruz campaign released this radio advert:
Pretty catchy, yeah? Gotta like how they rhyme 'Texuns' with 'guns'.
"If you're gonna run in Texts, you can't be a Liberal man" is fair political comment, and probably true. But what about "Liberal Robert wanted to fit in, so he changed his name to Beto and hid it with a grin"? Ted has been questioned about the ad and has said they're just having a laugh, you need to have a sense of humour, and so on, which is about as disingenuous as you can get. There is a lot more to it than that. The ad clearly has racial undertones, suggesting that O'Rourke changed his name to appeal to the State's large Latin American population. O'Rourke's real name is Robert, but he says that Beto is a common nickname for Robert in El Paso and has released a young photo of himself to prove it (he's the one on the right).
| Click to see full-size image. |
If he still has trouble with his laces he could follow Ted's lead of wearing Texan cowboy boots.
What makes this episode bizarre is that Cruz did exactly what he is accusing O'Rourke of, in the opposite direction. Ted's father is Cuban, and Ted's real name is Rafael Edward Cruz. He was known as Rafael until his early twenties, when he changed to Ted in an apparent attempt to appeal better to the majority white population in his political career. The bare-faced hypocrisy is mind-blowing. I don't think you could get away with it in this country but he will in Texas.
No doubt there is more to come on this, but I hope Cruz keeps his seat. He has so much more still to give us.
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