O’Rourke on challenging Cruz in Texas: ‘Listening to people’ is going to work

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) on Wednesday said he was encouraged by the voter turnout in state’s primary race, and believes his campaign strategy will prevail in November’s general election against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

“I was really encouraged by the turnout we saw amongst everyone, everyone in Texas, Democrats and Republicans alike. That can only be a good thing for our state,” O’Rourke said on CNN’s “New Day.” 

“Our strategy of going to each one of the 254 counties, listening to people and making their concerns and their fight our concerns and our fight, is going to work,” he continued. “And the good thing is we have eight months to continue to work with and listen to the Texans that we want to serve and represent.”

{mosads}O’Rourke and Cruz coasted to victories on Tuesday in their respective primaries, setting up a showdown in November.

Shortly after the race was called, Cruz released a radio jingle attacking O’Rourke for his positions on immigration and gun laws, and for going by the name Beto instead of his given name, Robert. Cruz’s given name is Rafael.

O’Rourke declined to address the ad on Wednesday, saying he wanted to focus on bigger issues.

While Cruz received nearly double the number of votes as O’Rourke in Tuesday’s primary, the Democrat has received a groundswell of support in recent months.

O’Rourke, an El Paso resident, raised $2.3 million in the first six weeks of 2018, compared to Cruz’s $800,000 over the same time period.