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Donald Trump and Ted Cruz — seen here in Houston, Texas on May 31, 2018 — were bitter rivals during the 2016 Republican presidential primary campaign
“Big Night in Texas!” Donald Trump promised in his Monday morning tweet.
Ted Cruz hopes it is as well.
The US leader is heading to the Lone Star State to give a shot in the arm to the Senate campaign of Cruz, one of his fiercest rivals for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Trump infamously insulted the looks of Cruz’s wife Heidi, vaguely suggested Cruz’s father had played a role in John F. Kennedy’s badbadination and tagged him with the nickname “Lyin’ Ted.”
The 47-year-old junior senator from Texas fired off insults of his own, calling Trump a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.”
Now, the pair will share the stage at the Toyota Center in Houston later Monday with two weeks to go before the congressional midterm elections, with Cruz in an unexpectedly tough re-election battle.
Trump needs Cruz to maintain Republican control of the US Senate, while Cruz is all too aware that a presidential seal of approval could help him in his face-off with rising Democrat star Beto O’Rourke.
– Far from a cake-walk –
Opinion polls still have the ultra-conservative Cruz in the driver’s seat, but he is far from the cake-walk win he and the party initially predicted.
Beto O’Rourke, the Democrat trying to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz in Texas, is seen here campaigning in Dallas on October 20, 2018 — some see him as the Democratic Party’s brightest new star and a possible presidential contender in 2020
“Beto,” as supporters of the 46-year-old O’Rourke call him, is making life difficult for Cruz.
While positioning himself firmly on the left, O’Rourke has eschewed the anti-Trump rhetoric systematically rolled out by most of his party — a move that has won over voters.
Some even say O’Rourke could be the party’s savior in the next presidential election in 2020.
Trump has called O’Rourke a “total lightweight” but the Democrat has opted not to get into trading insults with the president on Twitter.
“I don’t know that it makes any sense to respond,” O’Rourke told ABC News.
“The kind of bitterness and the name-calling and partisanship that has unfortunately defined so much of the national conversation, you can add more to it or you can stay focused on the future.”
– Trump and Cruz: a study in insults –
Donald Trump — seen here at Elko airport in Nevada after a campaign rally on October 20, 2018 — needs Ted Cruz to maintain Republican control of the US Senate
At the Toyota Center in Houston, which can hold up to 19,000 people, Trump will likely mock the young Democrat and sing the praises of Cruz, who is seeking a second term in the Senate.
Two years ago, however, the pair were hardly friends. Cruz was the last man standing against Trump in the primary, and the campaign got ugly.
Trump gave vague credence to a report from The National Enquirer tabloid that Cruz’s Cuban-born father Rafael had been friends with Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who badbadinated John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Cruz in turn accused the Manhattan real estate mogul of being the source of another Enquirer article that alleged the senator had been unfaithful to his wife.
Ted Cruz — seen here with a supporter on October 3, 2018 in Conroe, Texas — is seeking a second term in the US Senate
After the primaries, Cruz took a long time to formally endorse Trump, even going so far as to accept a speaking slot at the Republican National Convention in July 2016… and withhold his support.
Instead, Cruz urged Republicans to “vote your conscience.” Only in September 2016 did Cruz eventually say in a Facebook post that he was voting for Trump.
As is often the case, Trump’s tweets on Cruz tell the story about the evolution of their relationship.
In February 2016, Trump said: “Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them. He is another all talk, no action pol!”
In August this year, Trump tweeted: “As you know, Ted has my complete and total Endorsement. His opponent is a disaster for Texas.”
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