Posted on 05/29/2012 8:09:51 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
The Texas Republican Senate primary is headed for a runoff, after Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst fell just shy of 50 percent of the vote Tuesday.
Dewhurst will face former state solicitor general Ted Cruz, a favorite of the tea party, in the July 31 runoff. The winner of that runoff will be a heavy favorite to succeed retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), after Democrats failed to land a top-tier recruit.
With 43 percent of precincts reporting, Dewhurst led Cruz 46 percent to 32 percent. Seven other candidates split the vote enough, though, to push the two into a runoff.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Ditto. But I have serious doubts about him pulling nearly ALL of the voters from Dewhurst’s side over to his.
Still, stranger things have happened.
Dewhurst’s campaign used a parade of lies to sway voters away from Cruz.
Cruz is more conservative. If the grassroots conservatives unite behind Cruz, he will win.
Good, a victory tonight. Let’s finish off Dewhurst. His ads were disgusting.
Woot!
Dewhurst’s ads were a complete joke and patently false. David Dewhurst is a sleazeball that used his office as Lt. Gov. to kill many conservative measures. He killed the anti-TSA groping bill just to name one. The people that voted for him are truly sheep that shouldn’t be allowed to vote.
/johnny
The one I heard - repeatedly, today - was how Cruz sat on Pro-Amnesty boards. Anyone else hear that one?
I hope so.
What did Dewhurst get, 47%? That’s going to be hard to overcome given a static scenario of voter shifting.
Of course, nothing is static here.
Congrats Ted.
Calling all Conservative Freepers: Let’s support Ted..whether or not you live in Texas. He needs our help to defeat Dewhurst who apparently learned how to attack his opponent from Mittens Romney and his slimey PAC, Restore Our Future.
Dewhurst is at 46 with 46 in. He’s just above single variance for getting 50 percent. At double variance, Cruz will have it locked up.
The old "if you repeat a lie enough times, (for some) it becomes the truth".
Good news, Ted Cruz in July.
It’s going to be a tough slog. Most Leppert voters who vote in the runoff will vote for Dewhurst. And Dewhurst will continue to outspend Cruz two to one.
Crus has already challenged Dewhurst to three runoff debates, and Dewhurst declined. Cruz is still very much the underdog in the race. Sure, he can still win it, but conservatives are going to have to work their butts off for him over the next 60 days.
When has it ever been easy for conservatives.
Just getting into a runoff was a great victory for Ted.
Let loose the dogs of war!
Yahoo!!!!! Now it’s on to the really tough part of the campaign - getting Cruz over the top. It’s going to be Austin against the Tea Party and Conservatives.
I'd listen closer but I have other, more important stations that need attention.
ditto
I don’t know if this is meaningful or not, but I found something interesting, at least, in the numbers that are being reported.
The TX Secretary of State reports Early Votes and Total Votes...so you just calculate to get the election day votes (at least I’m assuming that works).
As of right now, here are the total vote counts:
EARLY
Cruz 199,636 (30.1%)
Dewhurst 318,067 (47.9%)
Total cast - 663,623
TOTAL
Cruz 387,289 (32.6%)
Dewhurst 535,277 (45.1%)
Total cast - 1,186,876
ELECTION DAY (my calculation)
Cruz 187,653 (35.9%)
Dewhurst 217,210 (41.5%)
Total election day cast 523,253
SO, either the Dewhurst voters for some reason self-selected to vote early OR there was a definite trend toward Cruz as the election approached.
The latter seems more plausible to me. That’s just a 5.6% spread. With 2 months to give the conservative base a chance to rally strong - with the help of guys like Mark Levin, Andrew Wilkow, etc...I think Cruz has a great shot at this.
OR am I misreading it?
Hank
Yay! Our family financially supported Cruz and voted for him. Plan to do so again.
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