Updated at 11:45 a.m. to include details from the convention floor.

SAN ANTONIO — Sen. Ted Cruz received a hero's welcome Saturday at the Texas Republican convention, where he recounted victory after victory delivered by President Donald Trump — and warned that Trump is in a fight for survival this fall.

"The hard left is angry. They're energized. They hate the president and they're coming for Texas," Cruz said.

He went against his challenger hard, depicting Rep. Beto O'Rourke, an El Paso Democrat, as a dangerous leftist who supports socialized health care, open borders, gun control and impeaching Trump.

The many achievements under Trump, from tax cuts to judicial nominations and the demise of the Iran nuclear deal, Cruz warned, are all at risk in the fall elections.

Like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and George Soros, Cruz said, "Congressman Beto O'Rourke, my opponent, wants to stop all of it. This election is a battle for the direction of this country."

"The day that Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi is sworn in is the day that impeachment proceedings begin," Cruz said. "It's the day that dozens of subpoenas go out ... to paralyze the administration for the next two years."

Polls have shown a surprisingly close race, and while Democrats haven't won a statewide contest in Texas since 1994, O'Rourke has shown a knack for fundraising and has stumped tirelessly.

Independent analysts aren't ready to put Cruz on the endangered list, but they're keeping an eye on the race for signs of trouble for the incumbent.

.@tedcruz is now taking photos with fans at the @TexasGOP convention. Hundreds are lined up. His dad is keeping them occupied as they wait. #rpt2018 pic.twitter.com/0iwzLA0e3Q — Todd J. Gillman (@toddgillman) June 16, 2018

Hundreds of delegates queued up for photos and a quick chat with Cruz, whose father, Rafael Cruz, worked the line to keep them occupied.

LaDonna Olivier of Pecos, chair of the small Reeves County GOP, was thrilled to get her turn and come away with a photo.

"I really appreciate this man. He's going to be part of history," she said. As for his ability to set aside the animus with Trump, she said, "God has prepared both of them for a special purpose, and when Republicans unite like they are doing, we get things done."

Texas' senior senator, John Cornyn, issued a similarly dire warning to Texas Republicans on Friday, noting that Democrats are angling to wrest away the Senate "and they think they can do that in part by winning Texas."

"Make no mistake about it, they're coming for our friend Ted Cruz," Cornyn said. "The Bernie Sanders army has latched onto his opponent's campaign. ... Beto and the boarding school liberals think they smell blood.

"They're in for a big surprise. Ted's as tough as Texas," Cornyn said, invoking Cruz's latest campaign slogan, "and we fight shoulder to shoulder every day in Washington, D.C., to make it more like Texas."

Texas Republicans gather every two years. The last time was in May 2016 — less than two weeks after Cruz dropped out of the presidential race when Trump trounced him in Indiana.

1 / 4Sen. Ted Cruz's "Texas Cruzer" is parked inside the main session hall at the 2018 Texas GOP Convention at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in downtown San Antonio.(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 2 / 4The Ted Cruz booth in the exhibit hall sports cutouts of Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Beto O'Rourke in a pool at the 2018 Texas GOP Convention.(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 3 / 4Supporters hold signs and cheer as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz takes the stage at the Texas GOP Convention.(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer) 4 / 4Sen. Ted Cruz talks with Isaac Gebhart of Bedford as he and his family get ready to pose for a photo with the senator during the 2018 Texas GOP Convention.(Louis DeLuca / Staff Photographer)

The loss was still fresh, as was the bitterness that marked the final phase of that rivalry. Cruz had called Trump a narcissist and a pathological liar. Trump had dubbed him "Lyin' Ted," insulted his wife's appearance, and suggested that his father had a role in John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Cruz, combative at that 2016 convention in Dallas, adamantly refused to jump on the Trump bandwagon.

"I'm doing the same thing right now millions of Americans are doing, which is looking and listening to the candidates, hearing what they have to say," Cruz said then. "My commitment is to principle. To the commonsense conservative principles that built America. I am looking for a candidate who will defend those principles."

Weeks later at the GOP's national convention in Cleveland, Cruz endured catcalls when he urged delegates to vote their conscience — a phrase popular among anti-Trump Republicans. Texas Republican delegates jeered him the next day, an extraordinary scene for a man who had been a tea party darling and hero to many.

"I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father," he said, defending his refusal to be "a servile puppy" for Trump.

An explicit endorsement wouldn't come for two more months. But time healed the wounds. Trump put the Texan on his short list for attorney general. And Cruz has emerged as Trump's wingman in the Senate on a host of policy fights.

He has rare access to Trump among GOP lawmakers, which paid off recently with a pardon for conservative provocateur Dinesh D'souza that Cruz had suggested.

He'd urged Trump to move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and to scrap the Iranian nuclear deal. He encouraged Trump to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Accord, and got a call from him the next day.

"I said, 'Mr. President, everyone who hates you is ticked off and everyone who loves you is thrilled,'" Cruz recounted.

Cruz spoke for about 22 minutes Saturday. Much of it was his standard stump speech, ticking off areas of achievements during the Trump era, including stocking the federal courts with conservatives, a major tax cut, repeal of the Obamacare individual mandate, and a new rule Cruz pushed that lets parents deduct tuition for parochial and private school.

He devoted much of the speech to attacking O'Rourke — and warning that the Democrat is on the march, raising more than twice as much as Cruz did during the first three months of this year.

"He is running hard left. He is running like Bernie Sanders," except even farther to the left than Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Cruz asserted.

O'Rourke, he warned, would hike taxes and "bring back job-killing regulations. He's running in support of open borders." Not only does O'Rourke not want to build more wall along the border, Cruz said, he would remove much of the fencing already in place to deter illegal immigration, criminal cartels and drug smuggling.

"He's running in support of aggressive gun control in Texas," Cruz said. And he noted, O'Rourke was the first Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate to explicitly express support for impeaching Trump.

The thousands of GOP activists in the hall cheered lustily and gave Cruz the most enthusiastic ovation of the convention.