Texas Republicans picked Tea Party-backed candidate Ted Cruz in Tuesday's Senate runoff election, knocking out long-time Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a race being watched nationally.
Pool photo by LM Otero
Ted Cruz, left, beat David Dewhurst for chance to run in November for Senate.
Cruz is a heavy favorite to win the seat in the November general election, as conservative-leaning Texas has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994.
The seat is held by Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is retiring.
Dewhurst easily led in the first primary in May but fell short of winning the nomination outright. Despite that showing, Cruz was leading in final polls and aiming to deliver one of the biggest upsets of the 2012 election season thus far.
Cruz competed against a better funded and known establishment favorite based largely on his appeal to grass-roots conservatives and endorsements from national party leaders including former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.
"What we've found is, if you've got grass-roots energy, all you really need is enough money to get you on the radar," DeMint said.
Dewhurst was supported by state party leaders, including Gov. Rick Perry, and maintained a significant money advantage over Cruz. However, after Dewhurst failed to win a majority vote in the May GOP primary, Cruz was given an opportunity to take him head-on in Tuesday's run-off.
Cruz's victory joins Richard Mourdock's ousting of Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in his May primary as the two most significant GOP establishment upsets of the 2012 Senate races.
The race highlights the ongoing electoral tussle between the Republican establishment and conservative grass roots in the nominating process.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who runs the Senate Republicans' campaign operation, attributed Cruz's rise to lingering anger for Washington's failure to solve problems such as the national debt and the pending expiration of the Bush tax cuts.
"Part of what it says is people are mad at Washington, D.C. They're mad at what they perceive to be the establishment and they want some change, and I certainly understand why," he said.
Cruz, 41, is the son of a Cuban-American father and was the first Hispanic solicitor general in Texas. He has been compared to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., whose 2010 win was backed by Tea Party-aligned voters.
