SUGAR LAND — On the eve of President Donald Trump's arrival for their big rally, Sen. Ted Cruz revved up Houston Republicans by reminding them that his opponent wants to impeach the president.

"Do we agree with Beto O'Rourke that we should impeach President Trump?" he demanded Sunday at the Firehouse Saloon on the west side of Houston, sparking jeers from a crowd of 300. "You mean it would be bad for the prosperity, the opportunity, the jobs that are happening in Texas if Washington became a political circus of impeachment and chaos?"

The boos continued.

Two hours later in nearby Sugar Land, with 1,800 cheering Democrats packed into a hotel ballroom waiting to hear him, the El Paso Democrat dug in.

"It's an issue that we've got to approach in the most thoughtful, sober way possible," O'Rourke said when asked if he regrets expressing support for impeachment and opening himself to attack as the only major Senate nominee who's taken that stance.

"It's a fundamental institution in our democracy, this check on power, this idea that we're a nation of laws and not of men — that no one man, regardless of the office he holds or his position of power is above the law," he said.

It's fair to say that Cruz has used the prospect of Trump's impeachment as a political issue far longer and more aggressively than his rival.

A month after Trump took office — five weeks before O'Rourke jumped into the race — Cruz was warning conservatives that Democrats would impeach Trump if they wrest control of Congress in the 2018 midterms.

It would take another eight months before O'Rourke expressed sympathy for the idea, and even then, he said conditions weren't ripe, with the special counsel probe still underway.

In April, he said explicitly that he was ready to vote for articles of impeachment.

1 / 3Senator Ted Cruz signs a cutout of his head following his campaign rally at The Fort Worth Herd on Friday, October 19, 2018. (Shaban Athuman / Staff Photographer) 2 / 3Sen. Ted Cruz works the crowd as he campaigns at the Katy Trail Ice House Outpost in Plano, Texas, photographed on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2018. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)(Louis DeLuca / TNS) 3 / 3Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-TX) greets supporters following a campaign rally in Dallas on October 20, 2018.(LOREN ELLIOTT / Getty Images)

In July, Trump shocked the world. At a summit in Helsinki with Vladimir Putin, the week after the Justice Department issued indictments against a dozen Russian military intelligence officers for meddling in the 2016 election, he declared that he took the former KGB officer at his word in denying Russian meddling.

The next day, O'Rourke chastised Cruz for failing to denounce Trump — and doubled down on his call for impeachment.

"Standing on stage in another country with the leader of another country who wants to and has sought to undermine this country, and to side with him over the United States — if I were asked to vote on this, I would vote to impeach the president," O'Rourke said in response to a question from The Dallas Morning News. "Impeachment, much like an indictment, shows that there is enough there for the case to proceed, and at this point, there is certainly enough there for the case to proceed."

.@BetoORourke looking to raise even more far-Left $$, yet again calls for impeaching @realDonaldTrump This partisan extremism may resonate great in Hollywood, but it doesn’t reflect the views of the vast majority of Texans. #RecklessAndOutOfTouch https://t.co/v4HH6TQ8gp — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 17, 2018

Cruz quickly accused O'Rourke of using the issue to thrill Hollywood liberals and attract donations.

With well more a million individual donors, it's impossible to know how much that particular issue has fueled O'Rourke's record fundraising. And each time the issue has flared, he was responding to a question, not pushing it proactively.

Twice, he had a chance to actually vote for impeachment and didn't.

On Dec. 6, the House voted 364-58 to kill a resolution from Rep. Al Green, a Houston Democrat, calling for impeachment. The House killed another attempt by Green on Jan. 19, on a 355-66 vote. Both times, O'Rourke sided against impeachment.

"I've never once, in I don't know how many hundreds of town halls and rallies and events we've had, I've never once talked about impeachment," he said Sunday. "I've never sent out an email. I've never made that a point to which we rally."

He doesn't emphasize that issue, but he does allude to it.

In the Sugar Land Marriott ballroom, he condemned Trump for calling Mexican immigrants "rapists and criminals," and praising neo-Nazis and Klansmen as "very fine people." He lamented "the indignity that he has visited on the highest office of the land."

When O'Rourke voices support for impeachment, he also argues that the special counsel probe should play out and says he views impeachment as simply a way to trigger a Senate trial at which more facts could come out about any high crimes and misdemeanors by the 45th president.

On Monday night, Trump will promote Cruz at the 18,000-seat Toyota Center.

"Allowing this investigation to come to its conclusion, follow the facts as far as they go, as high up as they lead, is the best course," O'Rourke said Sunday.

He's dubious about the impact of Trump's rally for Cruz.

"We'll see. I don't know that Texans care too much one way or the other what someone outside Texas thinks," O'Rourke said.

While O'Rourke only addressed impeachment this weekend when asked by journalists, Cruz has raised the specter at every opportunity.

"When he comes out and talks about impeaching the president, he raises millions all over the country," Cruz asserted Saturday while stumping in Houston with Fox host Sean Hannity and Energy Secretary Rick Perry.

"He has said he would vote now, today, to impeach the president. That's not Texas. That would descend Washington into two years of paralysis, a partisan circus. It would be Mad Max in Thunderdome, with Beto in the Tina Turner role," he warned.

At Firehouse Saloon on Sunday afternoon, the governor, who is coasting to re-election, made sure to put in a plug for his former protégé. Cruz worked for him when he was the state's attorney general.

"It is great to be with people who believe in God Almighty, and who would never take a knee for our national anthem," Abbott said, revving the crowd with one of Cruz's favorite culture war hot buttons. ­

"Ted Cruz is going to win because Beto is hostile to Texas values," Abbott predicted. "Beto is against good quality judges. Beto wants to raise your taxes, increase regulations, and spend more of your money."

"You have the opportunity to send the message to the rest of America," the governor said, "that all the gold in California cannot buy a Senate race for Beto O'Rourke here in the state of Texas."

The majority of O'Rourke's record war chest — $38 million just in the last three months — comes from Texans, though it's also true that Democrats from coast to coast and in between have poured money into his coffers in hopes of ending the party's two-decade drought in Texas.

Out in the crowd, Cruz fans were also, for the most part, Trump fans. They're against impeachment, and they're thrilled to see the president coming to help.

"They've buried the hatchet," said Melissa Vandermeulen, 58, a benefits manager for an oil and gas company.

"No one draws crowds like Trump," said Mike Patterson, 61, a sales representative who lives in Shore Acres. As for O'Rourke and his views on impeachment, he's unconcerned. "Even in a liberal state like Connecticut, a socialist has to work hard to win. Here, it's impossible."