SAN ANTONIO -- Rep. Beto O'Rourke shed his nice-guy approach in Tuesday night's Senate debate as Sen. Ted Cruz kept up the pressure to paint him as far too liberal for Texas.

O'Rourke went on the attack early, in a way he hadn't done in the first debate and even more directly than he has on the stump in recent days -- calling Cruz a liar, ineffective and self-serving.

"Ted Cruz is for Ted Cruz," he said at one point. When Cruz asserted that he backs a $10 per barrel tax on oil, O'Rourke bristled and shot back, "He's dishonest. It's why the president called him `Lying Ted' and it's why the nickname stuck, because it's true."

Cruz quipped that "it's clear that Congressman's O'Rourke's pollsters" must have advised him to go on attack.

O'Rourke has long boasted that he has no strategists or pollsters. But Democrats have prodded him to take a more aggressive tack with Cruz, a seasoned and unyielding debater.

The incumbent tarred him with angry Democratic "mobs" seen during the recent Supreme Court confirmation fight and warned of "utter chaos" if O'Rourke has his way and President Donald Trump is impeached.

"Washington would be consumed by partisan investigations. That's not civility," he said.

Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said afterward that O'Rourke is flailing because he's fallen behind.

"When an unconventional candidate becomes conventional, that's typically when they get split like a cantaloupe, and I think that's what we'll see," he said. "The whole campaign, Beto O'Rourke has been making a liberal bed for himself, and tonight he tucked himself in."

Said Texas Democratic Party chairman Gilberto Hinojosa: "After spending so much time in Iowa, it's no surprise that Cruz is painfully out of touch with Texas voters. ... He doubled down on more of his lies and divisive tactics. Texans know Ted Cruz, and they just don't like him."

The sharp retorts bordered at times on caustic. For O'Rourke, that risked undermining the post-partisan, open-minded brand he's sought to project for 18 months even as he promoted unabashedly progressive policies.

But in recent days, with Cruz gaining ground and pummeling him on TV with attack ads, O'Rourke has shifted to a more pugilistic stance.

He tarred Cruz for his alliance with Trump - and his use of a now-defunct data mining firm that wrongfully used the personal information of tens of millions of Facebook users.

"It's interesting that Ted Cruz invested more than $5 million in Cambridge Analytica," O'Rourke said. As for Trump, he said, "The Russian government sought to undermine our democracy" and foreign adversaries have sought to manipulate public opinion in the United States, and "our junior senator" - a phrase he invoked over and over - "will not stand up to President Trump" despite Trump being an apologist for Vladimir Putin.

"This is beyond party politics," he said.

Cruz complained about political bias by "big tech" companies, such as Facebook, but let slide the allegation about Cambridge Analytica. He has previously denied knowing the firm acted unethically during his campaign's affiliation in the 2016 presidential campaign.

When the conversation turned to trade, Cruz insisted that "I'm against tariffs. I'm against a trade war. I've made the case repeatedly to President Trump" that "if we're erecting barriers and shutting down trade, that is a bad thing."

O'Rourke, by contrast, is the only Senate nominee in the country who supports impeachment.

"That is extreme," Cruz said. "You want to talk about a shutdown? With Congressman O'Rourke leading the way - two years of a partisan witch hunt and a circus" that brings Washington to a halt.

O'Rourke shot back.

"Really interesting to hear you talk about a partisan circus after your last six years in the Senate," he said, a comment that elicited some giggles in the small studio audience.

As for the boast that Cruz has Trump's ear, O'Rourke argued that it hasn't done much good, given that the president went ahead with tariffs that hurt Texas farmers and manufacturers.

"You are all talk and no action," he said, adding, "When have we ever gone to war, including a trade war, without any allies? ... We are going it alone with China and it is not working."

Cruz on attack

On abortion, Cruz said O'Rourke wants "taxpayer funding for abortions, late term, even for illegal aliens."

Cruz added, "He's voted for that -- an extreme position. Fewer than 9 percent of Texans agree with that."

O'Rourke responded by noting the Supreme Court has a new conservative majority that he said threatens women, minorities and gays.

"I will only vote to confirm a Supreme Court justice who believes in a woman's right to make her own decisions about her own body," he said.

Cruz's closing argument: "Are you better off today than you were two years ago? Is Texas?" And, co-opting the Democrat's critique of him, he added, "Elections are about who we are. Do we choose fear, or do we choose hope?"

Trump factor redux

Trump will headline a rally Monday night in Houston's NRG Arena in an effort to shore up support for Cruz.

O'Rourke has tweaked the senator for failing to stand up to the president - especially given Trump's abuse of Cruz during the 2016 GOP primaries.

But Trump voters are Cruz voters and whatever enthusiasm the president can add can only help. And Cruz has already made peace with that phase of their relationship, setting aside the rancor to deliver on mutual goals such as cutting taxes and stocking the courts with conservative judges.

No more debates are scheduled, so this was probably the last face-to-face moment before Election Day, three weeks away.

The first debate, in Dallas on Sept. 21, exposed sharp distinctions over immigration, border security, police brutality, gun violence and the best way to deal with Trump.

Cruz called O'Rourke a socialist. The challenger depicted him as disturbingly cozy with an out-of-control president.

The San Antonio encounter covered some of the same ground.

Cruz pushed O'Rourke for opposing a border wall as envisioned by Trump, and trying to shift the conversation over border security into one about trade.

"El Paso is right across from Juarez, one of the most dangerous cities in the world" with 3,000 murders last year alone. "There's a wall there," Cruz said.

Both insisted the other is out of touch with Texas. And to some degree, each had a point. Texas, reliably Republican in federal and state elections for decades, has seen rapid population growth in recent years that is transforming the landscape.

The huge crowds turning out for O'Rourke reflect the pent-up aspirations of Democrats who have gone a generation without seeing such a viable statewide candidate. The enthusiasm among Cruz supporters is also intense, as conservatives dig in, wary of a shift in political control and cultural norms.

The stakes were high for both sides in Tuesday night's debate, at KENS-TV in San Antonio.

Cruz seems to hold a solid single digit lead -- 8 or 9 percentage points -- in the most recent polls.

But O'Rourke's fund-raising has left Cruz in the dust, and with $62 million -- most from small dollar donors -- he now holds the record for any Senate candidate in history. By one key measure, he's better positioned for the final push: he still had $22.9 million in the bank as of Oct. 1, more than twice Cruz's stash.

Abortion and the Supreme Court

On abortion, Cruz sought to portray O'Rourke as taking "an extreme position," supporting taxpayer funded abortions "even for illegal aliens."

"The people of Texas and especially the Hispanic community, we don't want to see taxpayer-funded ... abortions and late-term abortions. That's extreme," he said.

Cruz, whose father is Cuban-American, has sought to blunt O'Rourke's appeal among Hispanics, who typically favor Democrats but are often conservative on social issues.

But Cruz wouldn't answer a question about what Texas abortion law should be if the Supreme Court overturns its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that struck down state prohibitions on the procedure.

"I'm pro-life," Cruz said.

O'Rourke said Kavanaugh's confirmation raises the stakes on voting rights, civil rights for gays, and women's reproductive freedom.

Climate change and veracity

On climate change, Cruz maintained skepticism that scientific findings warrant government intervention in the economy, while O'Rourke cast the GOP senator as heedless of the welfare of future generations.

"Of course, the climate is changing," Cruz said. "The climate has been changing from the dawn of time."

It will continue to do so, but that's no reason to let liberals seize command of the economy, he said.

He hammered O'Rourke for voting against a nonbinding resolution that would have put a $10 a barrel oil tax off limits in a discussion of how to pay for infrastructure improvements.

O'Rourke said wind and solar energy generate more jobs than any other part of the economy. Even Texans who work for fracking operations want predictable regulation, and are concerned about climate change, he said.

Cruz tweaked his rival for supporting former President Barack Obama's Paris climate accord and other environmental policies that threaten jobs in the Oil Patch.

"Congressman O'Rourke sides with liberal extremists," Cruz said.

Tax cuts and PACs

Cruz denied he's been hypocritical to rail about deficits and then support Trump's tax cut bill.

"We're seeing record growth" of the economy, he said. A Congressional Budget Office prediction the tax cuts would add more than $1 trillion to the national debt "is wrong," he said.

"The reason we have deficit and debt is not that we cut taxes and spurred the economy," Cruz said, citing tax cuts pushed by former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. Only term limits for members of Congress and other structural changes will bring down overspending, he said.

O'Rourke noted only he has started a business and met a payroll -- not Cruz, who has been a government employee for most of his career.

Tax cuts for corporations were indefensible "in a country that is riven with income inequality last seen in the Gilded Age," the congressman said.

When O'Rourke accused Cruz of voting for tax cuts and then harvesting political-action committee donations, Cruz struck back. He noted that the Dallas-based Fire Ted Cruz PAC has raised a half-million to help O'Rourke, while the J Street PAC, which supports Israeli moderates and opposes West Bank settlements, "bundled" more than $160,000 for him.

Cruz said that when O'Rourke makes a big show of disavowing any PAC money, he's disingenuous.

"He just lets others do it for him," Cruz said.

Off balance

In some ways, the rivals seemed over-prepared for offense, and off balance when asked to humanize themselves.

"Tell us something you've done in the last year that has nothing to do with politics and would give Texans an insight into who you are as a person," said co-moderator Jason Whitely of WFAA-TV in Dallas.

As he did in the first debate, Cruz spoke of how hard it is to be in elective office while his daughters are ages 7 and 10.

"In the course of the whole season, I made it to one game," he said, referring to helping coach daughter Caroline's fourth-grade basketball team. "That's not OK with her."

O'Rourke, a former punk rocker, spoke of stealing away to the basement where he plays around with his three young children on drums and an amplifier.

"Me and the kids will rock out," he said. "Amy allows that every once in a while."

Ten-year-old daughter Molly, he informed viewers, "is nursing back to life a blind squirrel that ... is slowly regaining its sight."

The second debate in full:

And the first debate:

CORRECTION, 9:45 a.m., Oct. 17, 2018: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said Molly O'Rourke is 7.