We're learning the back story of President Donald Trump's visit to Texas in October and why state Republicans sent out a rescue flare to Washington to help with Sen. Ted Cruz's re-election bid.
Apparently Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who chaired Trump's campaign in Texas, helped orchestrate the president's visit to help boost Republican turnout.
“You’ve seen a number of statewide elected officials try not to debate Democrats, not engage in a conversation about the future of our states, but what we’re seeing now is like they pulled the fire alarm, they now understand this is a very real challenge,” says Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party.
“Everybody know Ted Cruz, and it turns out a lot of people don’t like him,” he says. “In fact, his favorables and unfavorables are really off the chart, he’s less popular than Donald Trump which is I guess why he’s going to be campaigning with Trump.”
However, Josh Blank with the Texas Politics Project at University of Texas-Austin, says there are still way too many registered Republicans in Texas for Beto O'Rourke to actually win
“Regardless of whether we’re talking about a midterm election or a presidential election, Democrats have about one million votes to make up if they’re even going to begin being competitive,” he says.
Blank says Trump’s visit is more about the state GOP not wanting to show any sign of weakness.
“Cruz may not have the same victory margin as he would like, or as Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick or Ken Paxton are likely to receive, but the thing they don’t want to do is look back on Election Day and see themselves as having been too passive in the face of a threat.”