Miracles aside, El Paso congressman Beto O'Rourke will need all the help he can get to beat incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in November.

O'Rourke is indeed getting a push from numerous pop-up, grassroots groups across the state, some that organized even before his Senate bid began.

Such is the case with DFW for Beto, an outfit that in the past year has planned numerous campaign events, registered hundreds of voters and worked to mobilize North Texas residents to sweep the underdog candidate into the Senate.

"We didn't start it. We didn't ask anybody to start it. They did it, and they are running their own show," O'Rourke told The Dallas Morning News. "They have already decided that this is the year. They will not be on the sidelines for this. They will get involved."

Asked during a recent swing through North Texas how pop-ups have propelled his candidacy, even before he began campaigning in earnest, O'Rourke said: "Dumb luck."

It's more than luck.

O'Rourke's chances of unseating Cruz rest with the extraordinary volunteer army that has been hastily amassed throughout the state.

Although O'Rourke has two challengers in the March 6 Democratic primary and Cruz has four in the GOP primary, the race already appears to be on between the two men. And O'Rourke will need all the help he can get against Cruz, known for his formidable political ground game.

The volunteer effort complements O'Rourke's field and grassroots efforts waged by his official campaign, though top aides for the congressman declined to give specifics about their overall grassroots effort and how many voters they have reached.

Cruz is a ferocious campaigner, known for developing effective voter turnout operations, and O'Rourke will have to at least match the incumbent's efforts to have a chance.

His supporters in North Texas think O'Rourke has the right approach.

"One of the things that's key with Beto is that he talks to everyone," said Swati Joshi, one of the leaders of DFW for Beto. "He stood there, talked to them and took pictures with everyone until they all were gone."

At the events, including a recent town hall meeting in Garland, O'Rourke's volunteers registered residents to vote, collected the data needed to coax them to the polls and provided information on how to give money to the campaign.

There are 20 leaders in DFW for Beto's executive committee, and they plan everything, including town hall meetings, voter registration happy hours and rallies. On Feb. 16, Fort Worth supporters will host an event called "Beers for Beto."

The group is organized in most of North Texas. Most cities, including strongholds like Plano, Carrollton and Farmers Branch, have grassroots leaders known as "Beto ambassadors."

Much of what happens at the North Texas rallies is fun stuff. In Garland, operatives taught town hall participants the "Beto chant," a popular ditty at campaign rallies.

Numerous other Democratic candidates were on hand, hoping to get a little bit of the Beto shine.

"People are energized," said state Rep. Victoria Neave, D-Dallas, a speaker at one of O'Rourke's events. "They're knocking on doors. It's quite the movement."

Searching for a winner

The biggest ambassador is O'Rourke himself.

It's Friday night in Garland, and about 2,000 people have jammed into a union hall for an evening with Beto O'Rourke.

Although in a much smaller way, his grassroots effort is reminiscent of the early presidential campaign of Barack Obama. And it has similarities, in concept, to the formidable machines developed by Cruz.

Adding more pressure is that O'Rourke's Senate candidacy comes as Democrats and independents are still smarting over the 2016 election of President Donald Trump.

"You are deciding the future of this state, of this country," O'Rourke exhorted crowds at various North Texas stops.

His supporters say he has the swagger of a winner, something much-needed by Texas Democrats.

They haven't won a statewide race since 1994, and nationally the party faithful was embarrassed by Trump's victory over Hillary Clinton.

"It's just amazing to be able to see him and help him," said Becky Toomay, a retired teacher from East Dallas who attended the Garland town hall meeting. "We need to get him in. It would make up for Trump."

Natalee Morse, a small-business owner from Forest Hills, said O'Rourke could help Democrats make gains in 2018.

"This makes me proud and hopeful," she said.

David Griggs, a longtime Democrat and member of the party's state executive committee, said there's something magical about O'Rourke's candidacy.

"I haven't seen this kind of enthusiasm since the Obama campaign of 2008," Griggs said. "It certainly has caught on and in a big way, which is a surprise to many of us."

Griggs says O'Rourke's grassroots organization, coupled with the potential wave of anti-Trump voters, could be a successful formula against Cruz.

Republican Ted Cruz talked to supporters in Mesquite during his 2012 campaign for U.S. Senate. (Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer)

Cruz's proven organization

But Cruz is a master of grassroots politics.

In 2012, when he was at 2 percent in the polls for the Senate primary race against Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, Cruz slowly built an organization that united with groups like the tea party. After finishing a distant second in the first round, he used the strength of his volunteer effort to overwhelm Dewhurst in the GOP runoff. He went on to beat Democrat Paul Sadler to win the seat.

Cruz's volunteer base was made up of intricate networks of conservatives who planned events, mobilized voters, conducted polls and did other campaign work.

Before his campaign was complete, his rallies were attracting thousands of people, as Cruz tapped into the burgeoning tea party movement and anti-Obama sentiment to win the seat previously held by Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz went on to finish second to Trump in the 2016 Republican race for president.

Like Cruz, O'Rourke hopes to ride a wave, knowing he can't beat Cruz with just money and organization. He needs people.

The congressman, elected the same year as Cruz, often talks about the night Trump won the White House, and about how part of the reason he's challenging Cruz is to be able to tell his children he answered the bell in the aftermath of Trump's election.

He's depending on a wave of voters to carry him to victory.

"We don't have a pollster, we don't have consultants. We don't use focus groups," O'Rourke said, though it stretches the imagination that he doesn't employ at least one consultant. "This is all on us, all of us. ... This is the power of the people, and you have shown so much — so much, so far."

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