During a Republican gathering in North Texas, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) admitted that he hasn’t raised enough money to compete with Beto O’Rourke’s TV ads.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported that the sitting senator complained about voters being “flooded” with ads from his challenger — and acknowledged that O’Rourke out-fundraised him.

ADVERTISEMENT

“We’re seeing the airwaves flooded [with O’Rourke’s TV ads],” Cruz said. “We’ve got to save our resources to turn out and mobilize conservatives.”

GOP operatives that spoke with the Star-Telegram said much of the fervently Obama-opposing voters that led to Cruz’s election to the Senate in 2012 have shifted their focuses elsewhere.

“All of the grassroots enthusiasm that drove tea party fundraising spends all of its time supporting [Donald] Trump on Twitter,” one operative told the newspaper. “There so much focus on Trump, it’s really sucked a lot of the oxygen out of the small-dollar enthusiasm.”

Cruz himself seemed to note that opposition to the current president is driving his opponent’s constituency.

“There’s no doubt that anger is a powerful political motivator,” the senator told the Star-Telegram. “Even though they have divisions amongst themselves, the hatred of President Trump is unifying many on the left.”