U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso to run for the Senate seat held by Ted Cruz

U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, drew national attention on his motor trip to D.C. with U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio. U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, drew national attention on his motor trip to D.C. with U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio. Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso to run for the Senate seat held by Ted Cruz 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

WASHINGTON - U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat and ex-punk rocker who pulled an upset to win his House seat six years ago, plans to declare his candidacy on Friday for the Senate seat held by Ted Cruz, according to Democratic sources in Texas.

O’Rourke’s fledgling campaign scheduled an announcement on Friday in El Paso, his hometown. He has traveled heavily in Texas over the last three months making contacts, barely concealing his political plans.

“I’m very moved to do it,” O’Rourke, 44, said in an interview earlier this month, adding that he had reached an “emotional decision” about the race.

Campaign aides declined to confirm he’s entering the 2018 race.

U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, is the only other high-profile Democrat who has expressed interest in taking on Cruz. Castro, 42, who has climbed the House ranks more swiftly than O’Rourke and may see himself as having more to lose.

Castro political director Matthew Jones said in a statement that Castro “is heavily weighing a Senate run” and continues to consider the prospect with family, friends and political supporters.

O’Rourke is a three-term congressman and a term-limits proponent who likely would have run just one House term ahead of him had he not opted for a Senate candidacy.

He is not widely known but has worked to correct that. He drew national media attention and thousands of livestream followers earlier this month on a 1,600-mile “bipartisan road trip” from San Antonio to Washington with U.S. Rep. Will Hurd, R-San Antonio, after a snowstorm canceled flights.

For any Democrat, a challenge of Cruz might be decidedly uphill given the Texas senator’s political successes and national fundraising. Cruz, 46, is serving in his first Senate term but in 2016 he was a finalist in the GOP primary race, emerging as the last contestant vanquished by Donald Trump.

A Cruz-O’Rourke race would offer a stark ideological contrast; a staunch conservative and self-described Constitutionalist versus an unabashed liberal who supports recreational marijuana.

Cruz is a lawyer; O’Rourke is a businessman with a family technology company and a musician who played in three punk rock bands during and after his college years at Columbia University.

A contest between Cruz and O’Rourke also would present dramatic differences on border issues. Cruz has supported Trump’s hard-edged immigration policies. O’Rourke, a fluent Spanish-speaker, has positioned himself as a friend of immigrants and trumpets the economic and cultural benefits of being closely allied with Mexico.

“Beto brings a fresh approach, a new face, and is someone who is able to connect with Texans across the board,” said Matt Angle, executive director of the Lone Star Project, an organization that promotes Democrats in Texas.

Angle acknowledged that Democrats have their work cut out for them in trying to unseat Cruz, a tea party backed conservative who built up a national conservative following in a White House bid last year.

“The challenge will be for Beto or anyone else running in a Senate race against Cruz to have the resources and the megaphone big enough to tell their story statewide,” he said.

Given Cruz’s profile as a national movement conservative leader, the race is certain to attract nationwide attention and money.

The Cruz campaign declined comment.

But Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe weighed in on Twitter to attack both Castro and O’Rourke: “Someone please tell @JoaquinCastrotx that he's no longer a rising star so stop acting like one. Muscled out by Beto? Pathetic display.”

O’Rourke, unlike Castro, has yet to develop much of a national profile, and remains politically undefined for most Texas voters, if they’ve even heard of him. Though seen as a liberal Democrat in Republican circles, he is well-liked on both sides of the aisle.

“I like Beto O’Rourke,” said Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the No. 2 Republican in the Senate and the former chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “He’s somebody I’ve worked with and continue to work with. But if he thinks that he can beat Ted Cruz, I think he’s sadly mistaken.”

Though Cornyn has not specifically endorsed Cruz in 2018, he noted that history does not favor Texas Democrats, who last won a statewide election in 1994.

“I think his fate will be the same as every Democratic statewide candidate… in recent years,” Cornyn said of O’Rourke, citing the unsuccessful gubernatorial bid of former State Sen. Wendy Davis and lieutenant governor candidate Leticia Van de Putte in 2014.

Cruz’s bid for the White House helped him build a formidable grassroots and fundraising base that would be hard for O’Rourke or any other Texas Democrat to replicate.

Cruz ended 2016 with a $4.2 million war chest, more than 10 times the $398,700 that O’Rourke’s congressional campaign had in the bank.

Compounding O’Rourke’s fundraising challenge is his unfamiliarity to Texas voters outside of his El Paso district, a fairly isolated media market in a separate time zone on the western tip of Texas.

O’Rourke has sought to overcome that deficit through a series of rallies and meetings around the state. But his biggest assist may come from Cruz himself.

As a self-styled conservative movement leader, Cruz has long established himself as a favorite target for the left, making the Texas Senate race one of the nation’s most watched, if not yet competitive.

“I can see O’Rourke using that to raise money online” from small dollar donors, said Geoffrey Skelley, an analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. Another bright spot for O’Rourke, Skelley said, was Hillary Clinton’s nine-point loss to Trump in Texas, the smallest margin since the 1996 presidential election.

Still, Skelley predicted, “it’s going to be a tough hall for Democrats to actually win Texas… You would need the president to be very unpopular to make it conceivably, really, truly competitive.”

With Democrats defending 25 Senate seats next year - 10 of them in states Trump won - it will be hard for any Texas Democrat to attract big dollar national contributors, whose resources might be needed elsewhere.

Robert Francis O’Rourke (he has been called Beto since childhood) secured his far West Texas seat by surprisingly winning his 2012 Democratic primary challenge of Silvestre Reyes, an eight-term incumbent endorsed both by Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.

O’Rourke is not regarded as a loyal party Democrat, a potential obstacle especially in a primary. He often proclaims independence and seldom has he been in the forefront of Texas leaders seeking to rebuild the state’s lagging Democratic Party.

O’Rourke has been in minority for his House career with little opportunity to get his name attached to splashy legislation. As a member of the Veterans Affairs and Armed Services committees, he has devoted much of his energy to veterans’ issues, especially issues related to the mental health of those who have served.

On Wednesday, the day his Senate ambition was revealed, O’Rourke introduced a bill calling for a war tax for every American authorized use of military force to establish trust funds for compensating veterans.

bill.lambrecht@hearstdc.com