{"id":317777,"date":"2017-04-02T20:10:18","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T02:10:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=317777"},"modified":"2017-04-02T20:10:18","modified_gmt":"2017-04-03T02:10:18","slug":"to-beat-ted-cruz-beto-orourke-plans-to-throw-out-the-democratic-playbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/04\/to-beat-ted-cruz-beto-orourke-plans-to-throw-out-the-democratic-playbook\/","title":{"rendered":"To beat Ted Cruz, Beto O&#8217;Rourke plans to throw out the Democratic playbook"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_317780\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-317780\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BDD6866_ORourkeTT_JPG_800x1000_q100-771x515.jpg\" alt=\"Beto O'Rourke\" width=\"771\" height=\"515\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BDD6866_ORourkeTT_JPG_800x1000_q100-771x515.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BDD6866_ORourkeTT_JPG_800x1000_q100-336x224.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BDD6866_ORourkeTT_JPG_800x1000_q100-768x513.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/BDD6866_ORourkeTT_JPG_800x1000_q100.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Bob Daemmrich \/ The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Rep. Beto O&#8217;Rourke, D-Texas, answers a reporter&#8217;s question at the Texas Capitol before the NoBanNoWall rally on Feb. 25.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">WASHINGTON \u2013 On what could be his last normal Thursday morning as a rank-and-file member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Beto O\u2019Rourke calmly ate a breakfast of oatmeal and coffee in the dining room he shares with two other congressmen in a townhouse just off Capitol Hill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">He was due to the chamber in an hour or so for votes.\u00a0The following morning, he would officially launch his bid to unseat\u00a0one of Texas\u2019 savviest politicians in modern history, U.S. Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/ted-cruz\/\" target=\"_blank\">Ted Cruz<\/a>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/03\/31\/to-beat-ted-cruz-beto-orourke-throw-out-playbook\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI\u2019m not going to do this and lose,\u201d O\u2019Rourke told the Tribune between bites. \u201cI\u2019m only going to do this if we can win, and I\u2019m going to run to win, and I know no [Democrat has] figured out how to do this.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">No Texas<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in nearly thirty years or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2014\/06\/06\/how-texas-shifted-blue-red-informs-democrats-today\/\" target=\"_blank\">any statewide office since 1994<\/a>. It is hard to find a political operative in Washington or back in Texas who would bet money \u2013 or professional credibility \u2013 on O&#8217;Rourke\u00a0winning this race.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But the El Paso Democrat\u00a0is earnestly bullish that he will go to the Senate through\u00a0a strategy of bringing retail politics to a state of 27 million people.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He has no pollster and no consultants at this point, and said he has no interest in hiring operatives of that ilk.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cSince 1988, when Lloyd Bentsen won re-election to the Senate, Democrats have spent close to a billion dollars on consultants and pollsters and experts and campaign wizards and have performed terribly,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The approach offers a clear contrast with Cruz, who has used<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0his own consultants to devastating effect\u00a0in his races for the U.S. Senate and the White House. Last month,<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0several members of Cruz\u2019s political team showed attendees at the Conservative Political Action Convention a presentation of his presidential campaign\u2019s investment and innovations in data analytics.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">When O&#8217;Rourke first floated the notion of running for Senate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/11\/04\/democrat-beto-orourke-looking-us-senate-campaign\/\" target=\"_blank\">in an early November interview<\/a> with the Tribune, many people in Texas and Washington responded with, \u201cWho?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But the shock registered most at home in El Paso.\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThe first surprised call was from my wife, like, \u2018What? What? Excuse me? What\u2019s going on?\u2019\u201d he said. But four days later, O\u2019Rourke and his wife, Amy, were watching with horror\u00a0at Donald\u00a0Trump&#8217;s\u00a0victory on Election Night. At that moment,\u00a0the decision was all but made.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt was Amy who said, \u2018I think you should go see if you can\u2019t do something that\u2019s more effective than what you\u2019re doing now.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In a conventional campaign, O\u2019Rourke would try to raise somewhere in the ballpark of $30 million in federally mandated $2,700 increments. Then he would turn\u00a0to the campaign committees and\u00a0beg them to invest millions more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">But the national Democratic committees are overtly telegraphing that the priority in 2018 is to protect the ten party incumbents who represent states Trump carried in 2016.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">To complicate matters, it is hard to overstate how unknown this third-term Democrat is in both Texas and Washington.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">He represents El Paso, which is so remote it is in a separate time zone from the rest of the state.\u00a0It<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>is a shorter drive from his district to\u00a0San Diego than to<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Beaumont.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Back in November, at least one high-profile Democratic official in the state confessed to having\u00a0never heard of him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And amid Wednesday&#8217;s giddiness in Washington Democratic circles around his pending announcement,<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>seasoned players referred to him as \u201cBee-to,\u201d mispronouncing the Spanish nickname for his Anglo given name of Robert.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Another potential stumbling block:\u00a0He has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/style\/beto-orourke-is-a-mexico-loving-liberal-in-texas-can-he-really-beat-ted-cruz\/2017\/02\/21\/868848ee-f482-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.3f3a133b27bd\" target=\"_blank\">pair of arrests<\/a> \u2013 but no convictions \u2013 on his record\u00a0from the 90s: one\u00a0for breaking and\u00a0entering and another for<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>drunken driving.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But most of all, he is taking on a wily and hardworking incumbent who was the second-place finisher for the 2016 Republican presidential<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>nomination.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">How in the world does he plan to beat Ted Cruz?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cTactically, strategically, I don\u2019t know,\u201d O\u2019Rourke said. \u201cIt\u2019ll come from Texas, and I have faith and trust the people of this state will make the best decision in the interest of their families and their kids\u2026I just trust that. My challenge, I guess, is to meet enough of them so that they can make an informed decision.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">His aim, he said, is to campaign beyond urban strongholds in a case-by-case basis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In a 38-minute long interview the day before his official announcement, it was apparent that O&#8217;Rourke was not going to make his campaign all about Cruz \u2013 a temptation given the senator&#8217;s polarizing image among even some in his own party. O\u2019Rourke never once mentioned Cruz\u00a0by name or directly<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>criticized his potential rival. Instead, he focused on topics like immigration, the border, and advocacy for his hometown.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The approach brought to mind the discipline Cruz has shown in his campaigns for U.S. Senate and president.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>But at his campaign kick-off Friday morning in his hometown of El Paso, O&#8217;Rourke gave a short speech in which he vowed to only serve two terms if elected and jabbed at Cruz&#8217;s failed presidential run, arguing that the state needed &#8220;a senator who&#8217;s working full-time for Texas.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cruz responded on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A liberal Democrat is announcing a campaign today to try to turn TX blue,&#8221;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tedcruz\/status\/847846694507212800\" target=\"_blank\">Cruz tweeted<\/a>, with a link to his campaign&#8217;s fundraising page.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\">And then there is money. Traditionally, the best way to build name recognition has been\u00a0through television advertising, and a statewide buy runs at least $1 million a week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Cruz begins the race with $4.2 million in campaign money. And the early signs amid O\u2019Rourke\u2019s run is that tea party groups and establishment organizations will line up with tens of millions of dollars to back Cruz at the slightest sign of trouble.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Nationally,\u00a0Democrats have no appetite at this point to spend serious money in Texas, and O&#8217;Rourke is not accepting money from political action committees.\u00a0He, like all federal candidates, has no control over whether a super PAC opts to get involved.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But anyone opposing Cruz is a likely magnet for angry liberal dollars. And O\u2019Rourke could have the makings of a Bernie Sanders-type fundraising operation. He is one of the most adept politicians when it comes to social media and was an early adapter of building a following with Facebook Live, a means of broadcasting events through that website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The results of those efforts are often viral frenzies. Most recently, his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/03\/15\/hurd-orourke-reach-washington-ending-road-trip-town-hall\/\" target=\"_blank\">bipartisan road trip<\/a> with U.S. Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/will-hurd\/\" target=\"_blank\">Will Hurd<\/a>, R-Helotes, earned both men a storm of positive publicity. So much so, that a handful of Republican operatives in Washington began to sit up and watch O\u2019Rourke more closely.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But before O\u2019Rourke can face off against Cruz, there is the issue of sorting out his primary.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">For years on end now, many expected it would<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>be one of the Castro twins leading the charge to turn Texas blue, and U.S. Rep. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/joaquin-castro\/\" target=\"_blank\">Joaquin Castro<\/a>, D-San Antonio, is still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/03\/29\/beto-orourke-senate\/\" target=\"_blank\">openly mulling a Senate run<\/a> of his own.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Oddly, though, O\u2019Rourke said Castro was the one who planted the seeds to launch this campaign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cI remember this summer at the convention, Joaquin\u2026publicly said that he was thinking about running, which I thought was exciting, and I thought, \u2018Hey, let me know,\u2019 and he said, \u2018If I don\u2019t do this, you should think about doing it.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt got me thinking,\u201d O\u2019Rourke added.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Once it became clear on Wednesday the O\u2019Rourke campaign was on the verge of a launch, Castro put out a statement gently reminding the press that he was still in the mix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">O\u2019Rourke said he wished Castro<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>luck on Wednesday in making his own decision. O&#8217;Rourke insisted if the primary is competitive, they will both \u201ctry and do this in a way that will make Texas proud.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt\u2019s good for Texas\u2026you want a competitive democracy,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But, he added, the mutual interest was indicative of improved conditions for the party.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cIt shows you that something\u2019s happening,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The 2016 election gave Democrats cautious hope for Texas. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/11\/08\/heres-how-texas-voted-every-presidential-election-\/\" target=\"_blank\">Trump\u2019s margins were narrower than other recent GOP standard-bearers<\/a> and Democrats made <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/11\/11\/harris-county-turned-blue\/\" target=\"_blank\">enormous headway<\/a> into urban centers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">O\u2019Rourke, however, spent much of his time in the lead up to Friday&#8217;s announcement in mid-sized towns, including: Wichita Falls, College Station, Killeen, Lubbock, Midland, Waco, Corpus Christi and Odessa. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">O&#8217;Rourke said he had expected a few dozen attendees at each of these events.\u00a0Oftentimes, over a hundred people showed up, having heard of the event through word-of-mouth or Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The larger\u00a0aim<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>is to look beyond the cities and take his\u00a0case to rural voters. The idea is not to win those regions, but to lose less-badly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It is the same tactic former President Barack Obama credited with his victories as a candidate in Iowa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">&#8220;There were some counties where I might have lost, but maybe I lost by 20 points instead of 50 points,&#8221; Obama said in November.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But Texas is a whole lot larger than Iowa. Can<\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0any of this work?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cWe\u2019ll find out,\u201d O&#8217;Rourke said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No Texas Democrat has won a U.S. Senate seat in nearly thirty years or any statewide office since 1994.  But U.S. Rep. Beto O\u2019Rourke is optimistic he can break the streak, in part by eschewing consultants, pollsters and PAC money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":317780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2260,116],"class_list":["post-317777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-texas","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}