Native Texans voted for native Texan Beto O'Rourke, transplants went for Ted Cruz, exit poll shows

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Beto O’Rourke fought during the Senate race over who was more Texan. It turns out that native Texan voters think O’Rourke is.

A CNN exit poll showed that O'Rourke beat Cruz among native Texans, 51 percent to 48 percent. In contrast, 57 percent of people who had moved to Texas said they voted for Cruz, compared to 42 percent who voted for O'Rourke.

 

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Cruz prevailed Tuesday night, beating his opponent by just 2.6 percentage points. It's the closest Senate race in Texas since 1978.

This midterm race caught everyone’s attention. O'Rourke, a Democrat and native of El Paso, challenged the Republican incumbent from Houston who was coming off a presidential run. Cruz proudly calls Houston home, even though questions were raised when he ran for president about his family living in Canada for the first five years of his life.

While lawmakers in Texas have talked about the wave of Californians moving to Texas and wanting to turn the state blue, data reported by the Texas Tribune in 2013 suggested these people moving to Texas aligned with conservative values more than liberal values.

O’Rourke raised the most money ever for a Senate race with nearly $70 million. After O’Rourke’s stance on the national anthem protest, he gained support from TV, movie and sports stars. Ellen DeGeneres supported it and invited the Democrat to appear on her show.

Cruz made sure to point out the money O’Rourke was receiving from “Hollywood liberals.”

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"Congressman O'Rourke is the No. 1 Democratic fundraiser in the country. And tens of millions of dollars are flooding into Texas from liberals across the country," Cruz said at an October rally in Nacogdoches.

Even Gov. Greg Abbott got in on the punchline at the Houston rally with President Donald Trump and Cruz.

"You got all these Californians throwing money at Beto O'Rourke trying to win a Senate race," he said. "All of the gold that is pouring in from California cannot buy Beto a U.S. Senate seat."

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Even with the defeat, there was buzz on social media and in the Texas Democratic Party with the possibility of O’Rourke running for president in 2020.