Updated Sunday at 3:40 p.m. with longer Cruz response to Mulvaney comments, and mention of larger Cruz rally later Saturday.

HUMBLE - Rep. Beto O'Rourke has been raking in cash and basking in rave reviews from celebrities. Long-suffering Texas Democrats are turning out in droves and looking to him as their best hope to end a 24-year drought in statewide elections.

It's all begun to rankle - or maybe rattle - Sen. Ted Cruz, whose shot at a second term has stalled, if recent polls can be believed.

"Every third day you get a glowing profile in the paper or on TV of Beto O'Rourke," he complained to about 200 supporters Saturday at a barbecue joint in the heart of his tea party base in suburban Houston.

"Their favorite adjective is Kennedy-esque. Usually with his hair blowing in the wind," he said, striking a pose, sideways to the audience and chin up. "Mind you these profiles never mention his radical record.

"They don't mention his being open to abolishing ICE. They don't mention his commitment to impeaching Donald Trump. But they talk about his hair. Oh my, apparently he has lovely hair. Apparently we are electing a clump of hair," Cruz said.

1 / 13Christian Christy, 3, ended up on the stage with Sen. Ted Cruz before he started talking with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 2 / 13Voters listen to Sen. Ted Cruz talk during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 3 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 4 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 5 / 13Caroline Taylor, Humble, talks to Sen. Ted Cruz about problems with the VA hospitals during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 6 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas.(Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 7 / 13USMC Vietnam war veteran Dennis Stevens, of Humble, ask Sen. Ted Cruz a question about the VA hospitals during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 8 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 9 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 10 / 13Dr. Jane Branham claps as Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 11 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz talks with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 12 / 13Kelly Cook, right, of Humble, gets his book signed by Sen. Ted Cruz, after he talked with voters during a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 13 / 13Sen. Ted Cruz takes a picture with Willy Rivera, right, after Willy gave him a painting of a flag, after Cruz talked with voters at a retail stop at Tin Roof BBQ in Humble Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas.(Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer)

The Houston Republican and the El Paso Democrat are a study in contrasts. About the only

they had in common Saturday as they stumped 10 miles apart was heavy perspiration, which stained O'Rourke's blue dress shirt at a packed north Houston honky-tonk and left Cruz mopping his face with a hand towel as he revved a far smaller crowd at Tin Roof BBQ in nearby Humble.

1 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 2 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters after a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 3 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 4 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 5 / 13Gaby Diaz, a 10th-grade teacher, left, and Brandon Wooley, center, a Navy veteran, clap as Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 6 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 7 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 8 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters during a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 9 / 13Beto O'Rourke hi-fives a fan after a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas.(Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 10 / 13Paula Chambers, of Houston, talks with Beto O'Rourke after a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas.(Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 11 / 13Beto O'Rourke talks to voters after a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas.(Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 12 / 13Tuesday Gross, cq, right, brought her two girls, Morgan, 14, and Meredith, 6, center, to hear Beto O'Rourke speak at a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on, Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer) 13 / 13Wayne and Charlene Gilbert, of Katy, Texas, talk with Beto O'Rourke after a rally at the Houston Stampede Event Center in Houston Texas, on Saturday, September 8, 2018. Ted Cruz campaigned in Humble, Texas, Texas on Saturday, while Beto O'Rourke campaigned a few miles away in Houston, Texas. (Irwin Thompson / Staff Photographer)

"We're not into walls. We're not into militarizing our border," O'Rourke declared. The crowd of more than 2,000 cheered.

"If you want a big-government, gun-grabbing liberal, then the Democrats have given you one," Cruz warned in Humble. "We believe in securing the border and keeping this country safe," he said, pausing as supporters chanted "Build that wall!"

In Texas, he said, "We kneel for our God and we stand for the flag."

While the challenger drinks in comparisons to the Kennedys, Cruz wrestled Saturday with the indignity of reports that White House budget director Mick Mulvaney warned GOP donors on Saturday that Cruz might lose because he's not "likeable" enough.

During a campaign stop later Saturday in Katy, where he drew a crowd he estimated at 1,500, Cruz dismissed his fellow tea partier -- a top Trump aide rumored to be under consideration as a future White House chief of staff-- as "some political guy in Washington."

"I'm a lot more focused on what the people of Texas think," Cruz said. "I got a job and it's working for 28 million Texans, and I take that job deadly seriously. I don't worry about what some political guy in Washington says. I worry about what the people of Texas say."

Immigration, the wall, tax policy, impeachment, school shootings, police brutality - the choices, as both contenders tell voters, could not be more stark. With 59 days to go before Election Day, both were hard at work scrounging for support and warning against complacency.

"What they're counting on is that too many of us stay home. Their side is angry, is unified, is trying to burn down the White House," Cruz told his supporters.

"Whatever you're already doing, please do more of it," O'Rourke implored at his rally.

He warned that even though he's smoked past Cruz in fund-raising, the senator has a list of "millionaires and billionaires he cultivated when he left this state and this community to campaign in every one of the 99 counties in Iowa."

Trump looms

President Donald Trump loomed large on both sides of the ideological chasm the race has exposed.

In the Cruz crowd, the senator's warnings of impeachment and upheaval set off knowing nods of agreement.

Saturday's round of shadow boxing came after one of the more eventful weeks of the Trump presidency, punctuated by an anonymous essay from an administration insider who maintained that he and others have spent the last 20 months as a guardrail against Trump's most misguided and volatile impulses.

Trump called last week's New York Times' op-ed evidence of a "Deep State" conspiracy against him and Cruz echoed that in an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News.

"We've seen the Deep State. We've seen Democrats coming out of the Obama administration, deeply politicized, who are fighting the president on every front. In many ways it's remarkable the victories we've seen," Cruz said.

He didn't mention the theory on Saturday, though it was on the minds of some supporters.

"There's 52,000 sealed indictments about to come down against the Deep State -- corrupt government officials, CEOs of insurance companies and pharmaceuticals," said Jim Jones, 51, owner of several pet hotels, setting aside his smoked turkey to chat before Cruz took the stage. "Who is this fake insider? I don't believe it. The New York Times is a very dishonest organization. They make plenty of things up.

"That's why they're called fake news," he said.

O'Rourke dismissed such conspiracy talk.

Asked about it after his Houston rally, he said the problem isn't nameless bureaucrats thwarting a president's agenda; it's Trump and enablers such as Cruz.

"When you have a president who is asking that the attorney general pursue or stop prosecutions based on party affiliation of members of Congress; when you have a president who defends Vladimir Putin, who attacked our democracy in 2016; when you have a president who asks his attorney general over Twitter to stop the investigation into that attack, you have real serious issues of law and the Constitution - from the same guy who describes the press as the enemy of the people, who says we should ban all Muslims," he said.

"I don't see a problem with the `Deep State.' I see a problem with a president who's not abiding by the Constitution and a senator who's gone silent for the people of Texas," the congressman said.

Beware the 'radical Marxists'

In Humble, Robin Lennon, head of the Kingwood Tea Party, wore a "Make America Great Again" hat as she warmed up the crowd, already sweating on a humid afternoon. Ceiling fans kept the moist air moving under the shade of an open air deck, but not enough.

Still, Cruz kept a blue blazer on and buttoned throughout his appearance, as ladies fanned themselves with campaign pamphlets and sipped tea from oversized cups.

Lennon sees an onslaught of "radical Marxists" against Cruz and noted that his fundraising amounts to "drops in the bucket compared to Beto."

She conceded that she'd been "late to the Trump train" because she resented the president's nasty attacks during the primary against the senator, his dad and wife. "I didn't like the way I felt that Trump had Alinsky'd Ted Cruz, Rafael Cruz and Heidi Cruz."

If Cruz could set aside the hard feelings over those attacks, she said, so could she. And the Trump-Cruz alliance, however unlikely, has paid off. Cruz played a key role on Trump's tax cuts and lobbied the president to pardon the conservative provocateur Dinesh D'Souza.

So far Cruz has been unable to dissuade Trump to blow up NAFTA. And the senator, like most Republicans, has expressed unease with his coziness with Putin.

"It's not always easy to go from being a flamethrower to being able to govern," Lennon said, calling Cruz's maneuvering in Trump's Washington "phenomenal."

Cruz, as he often does, emphasized the non-partisan storm response in Congress and the neighborly outpouring along the Gulf Coast, and his own efforts to boost federal support.

Coming off the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, he said that "judges have been one of the greatest and most unmitigated victories of the Trump presidency and our Republican Senate.

"We have Justice Neil Gorsuch. And w­­­­e're fixing to have Justice Brett Kavanaugh," he said.

When a supporter shouted: "You kicked ass!" Cruz responded: "I was no Spartacus" - a dig at Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, a likely 2020 presidential contender who was in Texas on Saturday talking up O'Rourke.

Strange bedfellows, Trump and Cruz

Trump plans to campaign with Cruz next month in Texas, and has vowed to pick the biggest stadium he can find for the event.

Even in the Cruz crowd, Texans see that as a mixed blessing for the senator, mindful that the president is deeply divisive and is likely to drive up turnout on both sides.

"If he's getting the job done, that's what I care about," said Lisa Fain, 56, a high school principal from Kingwood.

Given the way Trump lacerated Cruz during the GOP presidential primaries - mocking his wife's looks, accusing his father of having a role in the Kennedy assassination - the alliance raises some eyebrows.

"It's very big of him. That shows what kind of person he is," she said of Cruz.

Tom Stevenson, 67, a trading floor operator for an oil company, is a big Trump fan.

"The current administration is not typical. I enjoy the non-typicality," he said. "I like everything he's done." He's deeply worried that if Democrats take control of Congress, it's not just the Trump agenda at risk but maybe even the presidency. "They're going to have all sorts of hearings," he said.

Ten miles away at the Houston Stampede Event Center, as volunteers tidied up after the O'Rourke rally, Ben McClelland of Houston, 35, a designer in the oil and gas industry, said he loves the way the congressman seems like a regular guy.

"The guy skateboards. He was in a punk band, like, I used to be in a punk band," he said.

He's not enthused about impeachment. Like many Democrats he's no fan of Vice President Mike Pence and wouldn't be eager to see him elevated to the Oval Office. Besides, he said, "one of the benefits of Trump being president is he makes bad decisions and makes Republicans upset."

Tuesday Gross of The Woodlands, 32, and self-employed, said she's been hissed at in her suburban neighborhood for wearing a "Beto" shirt.

She confessed that she'd voted for Trump in 2016 and said she regrets it now.

"He's a loose cannon," she said, adding that she's not sure what to make of the fact that Cruz would welcome his support after serving as his punching bag in 2016.

"I am dumbfounded," she said.