The American Prospect: Ted Cruz’s Texas Tea
By Abby Rapoport
What happened to establishment favorite David Dewhurst’s supposedly easy path to victory?
It wasn’t supposed to work this way. Much as Mitt Romney was supposed to cruise into the GOP presidential nomination, Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst was supposed to have an easy path to the U.S. Senate. Dewhurst, after all, has a been a loyal soldier to Governor Rick Perry for the better part of nine years. He’s toed the party line, pushing the state Senate chamber into ever more conservative territory, and he had a limitless campaign fund from his own personal wealth. Now, state insiders assumed, was his time to move up the ladder.
Instead, he’s locked into a tight runoff against a Tea Party favorite, and much like Romney during the presidential race, he’s stuck responding to accusations of moderation, begging his audience to believe that he’s just as conservative and just as hard-line as his opposition. But unlike Romney, Dewhurst has become the underdog—and a loss is looking more and more likely.
Dewhurst’s fall can be attributed largely to Ted Cruz, the Tea Party candidate and former solicitor general who forced Dewhurst into a runoff.
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