No one asked.

Part of what is making this race so competitive is that Cruz is just so utterly unlikable. O'Rourke wouldn't be this close in a challenge to Cornyn even in a Democratic wave year like 2018.

ABC calls for Cruz.

:(

Now Beto is free to run for president.

O'Rourke finished in politics.

I don't know, Bluedogs. O'Rourke and Gillum could brush off the still buoyant dust of defeat on their shoulders, stand back upright, and use their newfound celebrity to take a whack at president in 2020. Or, if that fails, 2024.

O’Rouke got 49% of the vote. A loss for sure. But in fairness I’m confident this isn’t the last we’ve heard of him in Texas politics. The Texas Democratic Party has a new playbook as a result of his campaign. I’ll credit him with at least two house pick-ups due to his turn-out effort. Not to mention the state house and senate gains we have yet to attribute.

Cruz's final campaign for statewide office since he's campaigning for POTUS in 2024 again.

a bunch of other statewide margins finished around R+5 partially due to this... so there's apparently potential for a mass wipeout if Ds get over the hump in TX in a year with a lot of straight ticket voting

RBH: STV will be gone in a few years.

on checking.. turns out there's no more Texas straight ticket after "September 2020".. https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/01/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-bill-eliminate-straight-ticket-voting/ So, guess the candidates for obscure statewide offices can't just completely coast on autovotes, they'll have to depend on people voting for everything soon.

the change/swing map here really does make it clear which counties are in the Dallas/Houston/Austin orbit. But you can also spot that Beto improved upon Paul Sadler in Midland/Odessa, Lubbock, Amarillo/Canyon, Abilene, Wichita Falls. All the other rural counties, on the other hand. Nah. Same as pretty much every other Dem this cycle.

He did slightly out-perform Wendy Davis' 2014 numbers, although that's not a difficult accomplishment. Michael Li made this chart showing how Beto would have done if he performed as well as Sadler in the rurals or as bad as Davis. He does get closer with the Sadler numbers, but it still would have been a loss.https://twitter.com/mcpli/status/1067577377570660352

So, pretty much the quickest scenario for a Beto win would involve either a better showing in the Valley or just a higher turnout there? Something that could have been more realistic if Lupe Valdez was more like Tony Sanchez than Lupe Valdez. I might be a little harsh, but it just seems difficult for somebody running for Governor to be the worst performing candidate on their party's ticket. Also, not sure if i'll get around to entering the Lt. Governor's map soon, but it looks like Collier was leading the ticket in quite a few rural West TX counties. The Libertarians got 5%ish for US Senate, US House, Governor, and Lt. Governor in Sherman County (you'll see it on the change map). So, maybe there's a new destination spot for Free State Project people who don't want to live in New Hampshire.

https://twitter.com/JMilesColeman/status/1071969457613012993

yeah, they're gonna need to create a Travis County district in the next map to make sure they don't accidentally wipe out several R Congressmen by trying to split Travis between so many districts

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn%3AANd9GcR-P3r64yN7a7IbSYai1Q8lW73N16Gyhf-8gNjzWpV8XHFuPOwW