Tea party Republican Ted Cruz wins Texas Senate primary

[Lasher]

Source: Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — In a long-shot victory that could help define the conservative tilt of the Senate, tea-party-backed Ted Cruz defeated an establishment Republican on Tuesday in the hard-fought GOP primary runoff in Texas.

The outcome is not expected to tip the balance of power in the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats; the Texas seat being vacated is already held by a Republican.

But Cruz's win over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst provides another example of the tea party movement's influence on voters and turnout — even for a candidate who has never held elected office.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-senate-texas-20120801,0,4846333.story

[nc4bo]

1. Unbelievable.

They are the terrorists, all one has to do is to follow the teabagger money.

[Merlot]

2. Any chance that Texans will find the tea party guy to conservative and vote dem?

haha, ok, I kid...

[sadbear]

5. Not in 2012.

But maybe 2014.

[Lasher]

7. That is my hope.

Cruz has a 10 point lead against Sadler, but Dewhurst had a 14 point lead.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/senate/2012_texas_senate_race.html

We need to do better if we are going to retain control of the Senate.

http://www.electionprojection.com/2012elections/senate12.php

[sadbear]

8. I suppose anything is possible.

Cruz is extreme enough and Sadler is populist enough for a competitive race. Cruz will definitely turn off the few independents and moderates in Texas. And Sadler would definitely pick them up. I still don't think that will be enough. Maybe if Dewhurst ran as an independent, Sadler could win.

[Lasher]

9. Maybe it will shake things up enough to give Sadler a shot.

Pollsters have categorized this race as Safe GOPee. Now maybe it will be seen as competitive. I'd like to see some new polls done now, to see how Cruz stands up now against Sadler.

[Rozlee]

30. He'll might turn off enough Hispanic Repubs

like my sister with his endorsements of border electrical fences, drones and greater militarized methods to control immigration. My sis almost cringed into the ground once when I wondered out loud if Ted likes his Mexicans rare, medium or well-done. Demographics are changing quickly here in Texas. New, Democratic-leaning youth is being churned out in rapid numbers yearly. Problem: they're not showing much of a tendency to vote, especially Hispanic youth. The teens in my family are appallingly cynical.

[KamaAina]

3. All the Dems had to do was field a half-decent candidate.

Like Gen. (Ret.) Ricardo Sanchez. But he pulled out, leaving the primary field to two little-known candidates who will likely lose even to Cruz -- especially because the name "Cruz" eats away at the Latino vote any Texas Dem needs to win statewide.

[sadbear]

6. You gotta give Texas Latino voters more credit than that.

They're not going to vote for some guy just because his last name is Hispanic.

[KamaAina]

34. Let's hope not!

Also, like Rubio, this guy is Cuban-American, not Mexican-American.

[sadbear]

36. That's right.

And don't think Latino voters don't know that, too. They know there's a BIG difference.

[JaneyVee]

4. Texas is a mess. In full Fascist mode.

[Dustlawyer]

25. Not really, we need a 50 State fight like Howard Dean did when he led the DNC!

Rachel Maddow did a piece last night about Texas turning "Purple" soon. Tom Delay's redistricting several years ago bought them some time, coupled with the fact that we get no National support to kick start a come back.

[Zen Democrat]

10. Cruz is a creepy guy. I can see the potential for him to lose to Sadler.

The Republican Party in Texas is very divided. It's divided between kooks and tools, but at least they are working against each other at this point. I have a hard time seeing Southern Baptists in Texas voting for a Mormon. Perry is a joke to everyone after even his hat was embarrassed when he threw it in the ring. I think Dewhurst lost a lot of votes because Perry endorsed him. Perry's political blessing is now somewhere between vomit and piss.

[Gabby Hayes]

22. Lay Rail

Kooks and tools, indeed. I noticed some incumbents to the right of Satan are losing to Tea Partiers around Texas tonight, but then the timing of the election may have favored them. It's mid-summer, school is out and everyone is on vacation except for the walking dead. As you mentioned, Dewhurst may have also turned off a lot of voters and ruined the election for the whole bunch with those incredible attack ads. I think my tv is ruined. But if those ads are true, then Democrats should hound the press all over Texas to look into the allegations about Cruz selling trade secrets to China and for-profit juvenile prisons. Cruz also needs to explain if he really knows what a senator does. It will be up to Sadler to let people get to know him and talk to young voters about the future. This is a generation headed to space and it is in the DNA of Texans to look at the sky and dream. Sadler, it's time for the next big leap, let's go.

[magic59]

11. They don't come any dummer then Texass voters

must be something in the water, or tea.

[Tx4obama]

14. I think you meant to say ''REPUBLICAN Texas voters''

Be careful there are MILLIONS of Democrats down here in Texas.

Over 3.5 MILLION Texans voted for Obama in 2008.

[my2sense]

27. +1

[angel823]

28. +1

Thanks Tx4obama!

Angel in Texas

[Vogon_Glory]

38. Right on, TX4obama, I was one of those Democratic voters! n/t

[Galraedia]

12. Being backed by the Tea Party is like being backed by the KKK (Krazy Konservative Klub)

Democrats should CRUSH this idiot and beat the RepubliCONS on their own turf!

[Tx4obama]

13. Sarah Palin endorsed Cruz and campaigned for him.

God I hate that woman!

[Ter]

15. He's anti Patriot Act anti-SOPA and anti-NDAA

He's actually an improvement over Hutchenson.

[LarryNM]

21. He's even More Anti-Social Security/Medicare n/t

[Zyzafyx]

16. Another win

for our real Muslim Brotherhood. (With fucks to Michele McBatshit.)

[SoapBox]

17. Another batshit crazy Bagger...

the guy is nuts.

[Rhiannon12866]

18. Just when you didn't think it couldn't get any worse...

[Gabby Hayes]

19. Paul Sadler's speech at the Texas Democratic Convention

http://votesmart.org/public-statement/707476/texas-democratic-party-convention-speech

[BanTheGOP]

20. What really pisses me off is we had a good chance to get Dewhurst nominated

Texas has an open primary, where anyone who did NOT vote in the Democratic Primary could vote in the republican Primary. We should have easily gotten enough counter votes to take out Cruz. Now we have to risk the wrath of the baggers to win with a little known guy.

Cruz is too big for his head anyway. He said he's going to go around the country to try to elect other baggerthugs in THEIR primaries. This means that while he's out of state, Sadler will have to take it up a couple of notches.

Hey, upsets don't always happen on one side of the house you know.

[pampango]

23. Texas GOP - crazy senate candidate AND a crazy party platform.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/texasgop_pre/assets/original/2012Platform_Final.pdf

Here are some 'gems' from their party platform.

"Minimum Wage – We believe the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed.

Federal Reserve System – We believe Congress should repeal the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. In the interim, we call for a complete audit of the Federal Reserve System and an immediate report to the American people.

Sound Money – Our founding fathers warned us of the dangers of allowing central bankers to control our currency because inflation equals taxation without representation. We support the return to the time tested precious metal standard for the U.S. dollar.

Sarbanes Oxley – We support the repeal of Sarbanes Oxley legislation.

Dodd Frank – We support the immediate repeal of Dodd Frank legislation.

Community Reinvestment Act – We support the repeal of the Community Reinvestment Act.

Protection from Extreme Environmentalists – We strongly oppose all efforts of the extreme environmental groups that stymie legitimate business interests. We strongly oppose those efforts that attempt to use the environmental causes to purposefully disrupt and stop those interests within the oil and gas industry. We strongly support the immediate repeal of the Endangered Species Act.

National Sovereignty – We insist that the President and Congress defend our national sovereignty in accordance with their oaths of office. Therefore we believe the United States government must remain free of external control or influence, including, but not limited to, a North American Union and a security and prosperity partnership.

United Nations – We support the withdrawal of the United States from the United Nations and the removal of U.N. headquarters from U.S. soil.

Law of the Sea – Adopted by the UN in 1982, we still oppose the Law of the Sea Treaty.

UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child ― We unequivocally oppose the United States Senate’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

United Nations Agenda 21 -The Republican Party of Texas should expose all United Nations Agenda 21 treaty policies and its supporting organizations, agreements and contracts. We oppose implementation of the UN Agenda 21 Program which was adopted at the Earth Summit Conference in 1992 purporting to promote a comprehensive program of sustainable development projects, nationally, regionally and locally.

Cap and Trade – We oppose Cap and Trade (“Cap and Tax”).

International Organizations – We support U.S. withdrawal from the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organization and the World Bank.

[heaven05]

33. dangerous

dangerous to the peace and well being of the texas citizen and all the rest of US.

[littlewolf]

24. so he is a bagger ... so was O'Donnell and that crazy in NV...

ya saw what happened there .... why not in TX .....

[sadbear]

26. Texas ain't Delaware or Nevada

[lib2DaBone]

29. Cruz was promoted by Glen Beck and Sarah Palin....

[sofa king]

31. Good. Keep it up, Republicans.

You want to know why the Republicans are so screwed up now? It is because those Tea Party Republicans in Congress are so incompetent that they agreed eighteen months in advance to lose this election, by agreeing to the tax cut timetable laid out by Congressional Democrats and President Obama.

Teabaggers thought that they could simply reneg on the agreement (see, e.g., the government shutdown last summer, which was really an attempt to change the tax cut expiration timetable) and continue their disruptive ways. Since they don't actually understand the laws they're passing or the rules to which they are bound, they discovered instead that they had helped hammer out an immutable legislative schedule that just last week forced every single Republican Senator to vote against a middle class tax cut in an election year.

They will still be paying for that mistake six years from now, and the Tea Party and Americans for Tax Reform are going to carry our water for us, forcing every GOP Senator to run a primary race, and occasionally even winning their way into Congress.

Teabag Congresscritters will lower the collective IQ of the Republicans there--if possible--and make it more likely that they will stumble into other legislative entanglements like this one.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. Folks, you miss the silver lining, regardless of who wins in november.

No longer do we have the ugly spectacle of dems trying to curry favor with Kay Bailey Hutchinsonofabitch.

That alone makes me smile.

[IDemo]

35. DSCC chair suggests Republican Ted Cruz will likely win Senate race in Texas

She didn't say it outright, but Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the head of the committee tasked with electing Democrats to the Senate, suggested Wednesday that she considers Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz a likely winner in November.

During a briefing with reporters Wednesday, Yahoo News asked the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee chairwoman about her level of confidence in Paul Sadler, the Democrat running against Cruz for the seat. Citing his tea party support, Cruz is more of a problem for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell than for Democrats, she responded.

"We're monitoring Texas, as we are all states, talking to people on the ground," Murray said. "Let me just say, he won last night, he had a very compelling story, but I think the bigger issue there is that Mitch McConnell is now going to have a potentially much more tea party-oriented caucus and we have all seen the damage that has done to our ability to govern, to find compromise, to move this country forward in a positive direction. So I think it's more their problem than ours."

Cruz, a Canadian-born attorney of Cuban heritage with strong conservative support, defeated Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a Senate run-off election in Texas Tuesday night. The DSCC website lists Texas as one of the "races to watch," calling it "the next big swing state" because of changing demographics. Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson has held the contested seat since 1993.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/dscc-chair-suggests-republican-ted-cruz-win-senate/story?id=16906077

[n2doc]

37. Way to give up Patty!

With Obama making a strong play for hispanic voters, one might hope that they could turn the tide. Especially since I doubt this doohicky and Romney are going to really fire up the repub base.