Ted Cruz and Beto O 'Rourke Launch Campaigns After Labor Day in Harris County

KATY – US Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Democratic challenger Beto O 'Rourke launched their Labor Day campaigns Saturday in Harris County, rallying their supporters for two months at home in the biggest county of the country.

Cruz made two noisy stops in the reputed Houston Republican suburbs, while O'Rourke, a member of the El Paso Congress, staged a massive rally in the city. The events were the first in Texas by Cruz and O'Rourke since Labor Day, the usual rise time before the November elections.

"Whatever you do, please do more," O'Rourke told fans at the Houston Stampede Event Center, about 20 kilometers from where Cruz had made his first campaign Saturday in the area. "Not one of us wants to wake up with anything other than a hangover after celebrating a win on November 7th."

Harris County – home to the state's most populous city, Houston – has long been viewed as a political battlefield in Texas, although it was a firm democrat in the 2016 presidential elections when Hillary Clinton put 12 points. The county had already achieved much narrower margins in statewide elections, including Cruz's 2-point victory over Democratic challenger Paul Sadler in 2012.

"Harris County is a battleground," Cruz told reporters after an early afternoon stop at a barbecue restaurant in Humble. "I love doing the campaign all over Texas, but doing the campaign in Houston is always special."

With regard to the county's decisive change of direction in 2016, Cruz said it was "clearly a warning sign".

In Humble, Cruz sent an appropriate message to Harris County, devoting at least the first 10 minutes of his speech to recognizing the first anniversary of Hurricane Harvey and the resilience of the region since the storm began. The Texans "have been hit hard," said Cruz, "but the Texans have returned."

O'Rourke also spoke of Harvey's recovery at his event, recalling a recent visit to neighborhoods that were struggling to recover from the hurricane a year later. He told supporters that "people who have worked all their lives to build these houses or pay the mortgage bill, who are unable to rebuild at this time and who are out of breath, are selling pieces of a dollar".

For Cruz, the return to the election campaign has wrapped up a week of Senate confirmation hearings for US Supreme Court candidate Brett Kavanaugh. Throughout the day, Cruz looked at what he described as a circus atmosphere created by the Democratic Committee on the Judiciary, insisting that Senator Cory Booker insisted that he was publishing confidential Kavanaugh documents. – even if it meant being expelled from the Senate.

Cruz was also caught in the spotlight by questioning Kavanaugh, and his supporters seemed well aware of it. "You kicked in the ass!" One of them screamed as Cruz discussed the hearings.

"Thanks for that, by the way," Cruz replied before sweeping, "Look, I was not a Spartacus."

(Coincidentally, Booker was also in Houston on Saturday, campaigning for Congressional candidate Lizzie Fletcher, who was due to travel to Austin in the evening to stage a state party dinner.)

During the day, Cruz took all his usual hits on O'Rourke, portraying him as too liberal for Texas, while warning against Democrat enthusiasm in Trump's time. In Humble, Cruz told his supporters that the Democratic Party "is angry, unified and is trying to burn the White House". At Katy, Cruz's comments on the opposition took a bizarre turn by claiming that Democrats want California – up to tofu, silicone and dyed hair. "

At his rally, O & # 39; Rourke continued to keep his speech on Cruz to a minimum but alluded to the attacks that were launched against him – on television and elsewhere – and which took off since Labor Day . In recounting the latest fundraising figures in the race, O 'Rourke said that Cruz's money had already been "deployed in the most cynical manner, seeking to scare you, to scare us out of 'to come up".

The stops in Harris County were a bit more personal for Cruz. His second event brought him to Faith West Academy in Katy, where he did high school and played in the basketball team. He spent a lot of time on the bench, he noted, and enjoyed returning to school as an American senator, finally greeted by a cheering crowd in the gym.

In Humble, Cruz was in the company of the Kingwood TEA Party, among the groups that helped fuel his 2012 campaign. Before Cruz spoke, the husband and wife duo who co-founded the band, Jim and Robin Lennon, recalled in turn Cruz's transition from Trump's fierce rival during the 2016 primary to one of the president's closest allies in the Senate.

"It was a primary bruised," said Jim Lennon, "and [Cruz] was insulted – his family was insulted – but he forgave for the good of the country and began working closely with the president for the good of the country. "