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Beto O'Rourke's insurgent democratic campaign to steal a seat in the US Senate in Texas for the first time in a century has entered its final hours, with the party's new superstar showing no sign of relapse into its legendary energy.
The Texas Senate race is not only the most watched competition of all Senate competitions, given O'Rourke's bold attempt to oust Ted Cruz from a seat so far known as a Republican. It's also the most expensive US Senate race in history – surpassing the $ 100 million mark.
This is evidence of O'Rourke's exceptional appeal to young Liberals not only in his home country but throughout the country: $ 70 million of this huge amount was raised by him, including most through over a million modest online donations. Cruz's relatively disappointing fundraising of $ 30 million forced him to seek logistical support in the infrastructure of Greg Abbott, the powerful governor of Texas, and the local Republican party.
But given the extremely superior political machine of the Texas Conservatives and the fact that every elected position in the entire state is occupied by Republicans since 1998, this battle remains to be lost for Cruz. The polls gave him a six-point lead, but the gap has tightened in recent days to move closer to the margin of error.
Faced with an unexpectedly threatening opponent, Cruz was forced to call on the cavalry in the form of his former enemy of 2016, Donald Trump, who organized the Make America Great Again rally in Houston last month. Even with Trump's support, Cruz is still struggling to get his message across against O'Rourke's optimism and charisma.
The contrast was visible on Monday when the two rivals met in Houston, the largest city in Texas, which will play a significant role in determining the outcome of the elections. Cruz has barely managed to attract 175 followers to a Baptist church in suburban Houston, while, according to the Dallas Morning News, O'Rourke has attracted twice as much success in a barbecue restaurant in town.
What makes this race so unpredictable is the impressive participation in early elections, a result of historically high passions among voters on both sides of the political divide. Nearly 5 million Texans have already voted in polling stations or by mail, more than double the rate recorded in the last mid-term elections in 2014.
This, combined with a record 1.6 million new electors on the blackboard over the past four years, left O'Rourke confident that he was beginning to enter modest communities but democratically not vote at all. This includes two of his main constituencies – young Texans and Hispanic voters.
O'Rourke's team was particularly encouraged by the fact that nearly 8% of registered voters came from new voters. "These are the new voters," O'Rourke's councilors said Monday. "These are hundreds of thousands of people who do not normally run for mid-term elections – who will win this race for Beto."
O'Rourke returned home to El Paso, the Texas community he represents in Congress. He must vote in a polling station in town at the opening of the polls Tuesday at 7 o'clock.
El Paso, border town located in the far west of the state, away from the Mexican city of Juarez, by the border with it, shows signs of hope for its resident the most famous. Nearly 140,000 people have already voted, an extraordinary figure in a city of 690,000 inhabitants.
The number of anticipated votes in El Paso is almost double the total number of votes cast in the city in 2014. If the enthusiasm persists until election day, the total number of votes cast is almost the same than during the presidential race of two years ago.
This would respond to one of O'Rourke's most fundamental goals: to create such a commitment in this mid-term election year that is a presidential election. In doing so, he hopes to visit the polls with sporadic new voters who have not been heard for so long, but who have the potential to change the face of Texas.
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