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DALLAS – Senator Ted Cruz and Beto representative O & # 39; Rourke, Texas political rivals who are engaged in one of the tightest and most passionate races in the country, will face Friday night in the first of the three debates, as Mr Cruz asks. to reassure worried Republicans and disrupt Mr. O. Rourke's political momentum.
In an auditorium at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Mr. Cruz and Mr. O'Rourke will meet for an hour-long debate starting at 7 pm Eastern Time. Cruz, who was a Republican candidate against Donald J. Trump in 2016, is seeking a second term in the Senate. But he faces a daunting challenge from El Paso Congressman Mr. O'Rourke, who has been trying to become the first Democrat since 1994 to win an election in the state of Texas.
Recent polls have indicated that the race was a boost. On Tuesday, a Quinnipiac University poll revealed that Mr. Cruz leading Mr. O'Rourke by nine percentage points among likely voters polled by telephone. On Wednesday, an online survey by Reuters and others allowed O'Rourke to overtake Cruz by two percentage points among likely voters, the first poll to be conducted by O'Rourke .
The face-to-face Friday night will be a clash not only of red and blue America, but also of personalities. O'Rourke, a former punk-rock musician, will face one of Washington's most talented speakers.
Mr. Cruz was a national debate champion at Princeton University and argued before the United States Supreme Court as Solicitor General of Texas. He has been preparing for this debate for weeks, well before the timetable is even finalized, engaging in preparation sessions of several hours a week, according to relatives of Mr. Cruz.
Mr. O'Rourke, for his part, organized discussions with his staff and got used to answering questions in 90 seconds, according to people familiar with the preparations. And he turned to an unlikely hobby: keep a diary. During a road trip through the state last year, O'Rourke began writing his daily newspaper stories, telling people he met and stories he had heard. He has kept this habit ever since, and in recent weeks he has reread his newspapers for inspiration.
The debate comes at a crucial time for Mr. Cruz, while Mr. O'Rourke has had a recent ascent and become a kind of rock star Democrat in Texas and beyond, with television shows and rallies. His defense of kneeling footballers at the national anthem has received millions of views online. One of Trump's key advisers, Mick Mulvaney, the federal budget director, spoke of anxiety among many Republicans when he recently told donors in New York that Mr. Cruz could lose his reelection because he is not considered "friendly" enough.
Mr. Cruz tried to rebuff Mulvaney's remarks, and the senator's assistants and relatives say that he took his opponent seriously but remains confident that he will win.
"He knows that he is facing a serious candidate and that Democrats are driven by their rage against the president," said David K. Panton, a close friend of Mr. Cruz and partner of the United States. Senator's debate team at Princeton. written in an email. He added: "As he often tells me, you run either scared or unopposed."
For Mr. O. Rourke and the Texas Democrats, the political stakes are considerable. The last time a Democrat was elected to the state office, it was almost 24 years ago when Attorney General Dan Morales, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock and a few others were re-elected in November 1994. Mr. O. Rourke became the key activists and small dollar donors seek to transform Texas from red to purple and, someday, even from blue.
Mr. Cruz has been eager to launch the offensive recently by telling his audience that his opponent was too radical for Texas and saying that O'Rourke was in favor of abolishing I.C.E. and remove President Trump. (Mr. O'Rourke said that he never directly advocated indictment; he criticized the Trump administration's separation of families policy, including the removal of I.C.E., but also questioned what the abolition of the agency would "accomplish".)
On Twitter, Mr. Cruz joked about Mr. O'Rourke's call to the anti-meat crowd, tweeting that "if Beto wins, the barbecue will be illegal!"
Mr. O'Rourke seemed uninterested in directly negotiating beards with Mr. Cruz. "We are running against no one, nothing, or any other political party – we are running for this country, and I am very happy to be part of it," said O. Rourke to Stephen Colbert at the time. The Late Show ". . "
Last week, after months of negotiations on logistics, the number of debates and the opportunity to organize one in Spanish, the Cruz and O'Rourke campaigns agreed on three one-hour debates: the first Friday at Dallas; a second on September 30 at the University of Houston; and a third Oct. 16 in a television studio in San Antonio.
All debates will take place in front of live hearings. Friday's debate will be broadcast on the websites of NBC 5, the Dallas Morning News, the Texas Tribune and other news agencies in Texas. The focus will be on domestic policy issues.
Manny Fernandez has reported Dallas and Mitchell Ferman from McAllen, Texas.
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