Apparently calling yourself “Beto” doesn’t help.
If Rep. O’Rourke were doing as well among Hispanic voters as Democrats usually tend to do, he might actually beat Ted Cruz.
Driving around Juarez in late September, Bob Pena remarked wistfully about the city that once was, the city he knew as a child. A once-swinging nightclub turned into a dusty shell. A glitzy hotel reduced to cheap, crumbling apartments. A mansion sacrificed to scavengers and the elements.
All of it is reason for Hispanics like himself to continue voting for Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz, he said. Pena is the executive director of the El Paso County Republican Party but he’s not an outlier. Thirty-seven percent of Hispanics in Texas support Cruz for re-election against his Democratic rival, Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, according to a Quinnipiac University Poll. The poll is in line with others showing Cruz with the support of a more than one-third of likely Hispanic voters despite his hardline stance on immigration and newly found admiration for President Trump, who is historically unpopular among Hispanics nationwide.
It’s not Cruz’s last name. O’Rourke is actually doing better among Hispanic voters than the Cornyn vs. Alameel race.
In Texas, the Latino vote was split between incumbent Republican John Cornyn (48%) and Democrat David Alameel (47%), as Cornyn won support from nearly half of Latinos.
Dems have to be wondering whether their plan to Blue, Texas is going to happen.
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