Ted Cruz held off a challenge from Democrat Beto O’Rourke and will head to the U.S. Senate for a second term. Cruz was expected to win, despite a surge in interest around O’Rourke, who became a national celebration during his 18-month campaign. Texas hasn’t sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in more than three decades. Still, the race was close. At several points in the evening, O'Rourke pulled ahead of Cruz, but the incumbent ultimately held off the challenger, with the Associated Press calling the race for Cruz at 10:27 E.T.

O’Rourke, who represents El Paso in the House of Representative, put up quite a fight. He visited all 254 counties in Texas, some of them multiple times. He appeared at large-scale rallies in Austin and Houston, convened town halls in small communities that hadn’t seen a national political candidate since Lyndon Johnson, and held informal running groups with would-be voters.

Beto O’Rourke spent 18 months campaigning across all of Texas’s 254 counties. Chip Somodevilla Getty Images

All the while he shared a hopeful message of building bridges instead of walls, in stark contrast to that of Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress. In August, a video of O’Rourke defending NFL players who chose to take a knee during the national anthem to protest police killings of black men went viral and earned him a national spotlight.

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‘I can think of nothing more American.’ — Beto O'Rourke — the man taking on Ted Cruz — brilliantly explains why NFL players kneeling during the anthem is not disrespectful pic.twitter.com/bEqOAYpxEL — NowThis (@nowthisnews) August 21, 2018

Meanwhile, O’Rourke’s campaign, which pledged to accept money only from individuals and not political action committees (PACs), raised $70 million in donations, twice that of Cruz. Numerous high-profile celebrities stumped for O’Rourke, including Willie Nelson, who held a concert to help raise money, and the director Richard Linklater, who created three commercials for him.

Cruz, who was elected to the Senate in 2012, leaned heavily on President Trump’s support in the final stretch of the campaign. Just two years earlier, Trump repeatedly referred to Cruz as “Lyin’ Ted,” insulted his wife, Heidi, and suggested Cruz’s father played a part in the Kennedy assassination (he did not). Cruz also sought to portray O’Rourke as an outsider who didn’t share the same values of most Texans.

Michael Sebastian Michael Sebastian was named editor-in-chief of Esquire in June 2019 where he oversees print and digital content, strategy and operations.

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