“In Beto O'Rourke's own words,” Cruz tweeted along with a video of O’Rourke speaking out about the death of Botham Jean, a black man who was recently shot and killed by a police officer in his own home.

“How can it be, in this day and age, in this very year, in this community, that a young man — African American, in his own apartment — is shot and killed by a police officer?” O’Rourke asked a crowd of supporters at the Good Street Baptist Church in Dallas earlier this month.

“And when we all want justice and the facts and the information to make an informed decision, what is released to the public?” O'Rourke asked. “That he had a small amount of marijuana in his kitchen. How can that be just in this country?”

“How can we continue to lose the lives of unarmed black men in the United States of America at the hands of white police officers? That is not justice. That is not us. That can and that must change,” O’Rourke said to the cheering crowd, many whom had risen to their feet in a standing ovation.

The tweet...backfired.