AUSTIN – Texas’ red-hot Senate race between Ted Cruz and Beto O’Rourke just got a little more … musical.

An Austin group calling itself “The Betones” has posted a music video with a country twang on YouTube lavishing praise on the El Paso Democrat, while peppering the Republican incumbent with a string of lyrical down-home zingers and cartoon images.

“Hand it to O’Rourke. Ted Cruz has got to go. Take that seat from Lyin’ Ted and give it to Beto,” goes the refrain in the two-minute, 18-second ditty.

The song follows the early-campaign send up by Cruz that takes off on the band Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas.” In the Cruz version, debuted in March, “you gotta have a fiddle in the band” is replaced with “you can’t be a liberal man.”

The Beto Song, as The Betones titled it,” wasn't produced by the O'Rourke campaign. It was posted Aug. 29 by Shayna Brown, who runs an Austin media company called Chez Boom Audio. In a Facebook post, which links to the video that by Monday morning attracted about 11,000 views, Brown credits the song to her “incredible family and friends.”

One of the favorite lines in The Beto Song, judging by the comments in the YouTube post, is "That Whataburger eater is gonna be our leader." It's a dig at last month's attempted dig at O'Rourke that compared the congressman to a "triple-meat Whataburger" liberal that ended up more of a compliment.

Cruz spent Labor Day at a Republican rally in McKinney, north of Dallas, where he drew cheers by linking O'Rourke to what he called liberal interests bent on impeaching President Donald Trump.

"They're emoting," Cruz told the crowd. "Trump bad. That's their entire reason (for favoring impeachment). He comes out for impeaching Trump and millions of dollars flow in."

Related content

More:Ted Cruz vs. Beto O'Rourke: A campaign diary for Texas' Senate race

More:NFL players kneeling during national anthem becomes issue in Texas Senate race

More:Beto O'Rourke makes time to skateboard during U.S. Senate bid against Ted Cruz