LUFKIN — El Paso Rep. Beto O’Rourke arrived for a town hall in a rundown East Texas neighborhood bleary-eyed, with coffee in his hand and stubble on his face.

That’s because Beto O’Rourke was up all night in Washington, where a Republican senator caused a brief government shutdown that forced Beto O’Rourke to forgo a day and a half’s worth of campaign events back in Texas. Not to mention a shower and shave.

Beto O’Rourke, who then took a 6:45 a.m. flight to Houston that Friday and drove two hours northeast to Lufkin, needed sleep. But more than that, Beto O’Rourke needs rallies like these so that people learn his name.

Because they sure know the name of his opponent: Sen. Ted Cruz.

The Democrat is 11 months into his long-shot bid to oust one of the nation’s most prominent Republicans, and only days away from the start of the Texas election season when early voting begins Tuesday.

The three-term congressman will face nominal competition in the March 6 primary and is expected to be the top Democrat on the ballot in November. He’s captured the attention of national and Texas Democrats eager to channel anger at President Donald Trump and Cruz, and who see O’Rourke’s earnest demeanor as the antidote to harsh rhetoric out of the White House.

But for all of that excitement, O’Rourke faces very real hurdles: a name best known in the far reaches of Texas; a state party still rebuilding after losing power in the 1990s; and a numbers problem, with Republicans estimated to have a 1 million-voter advantage in the midterm election.

That’s to say nothing of what some call a noble, if not suicidal decision to eschew the aid of political action committees — the kind of financial support that can fund name-boosting and get-out-the-vote efforts.

O’Rourke is trying to overcome those issues with sweat equity — a robust 254-county strategy in the form of intense social media promotion and back-to-back events, even in rural areas some might write off.

Which brings him to Angelina County, a 12-hour drive from his home base, but politically, worlds away. Seventy-three percent of voters here went for Trump over Hillary Clinton, and it’s part of a district represented by conservative Rep. Louie Gohmert.

It was O’Rourke’s second time in Lufkin since declaring his candidacy. Still, few people walking in the downtown area on a recent Friday were familiar with the congressman, or knew that Cruz had a challenger.

“Never heard of him,” said Tom Harrison, a fifth-generation elevator repairman from Fort Worth who regularly travels to Lufkin for business.

Harrison voted for Cruz in the 2012 Senate race and again in the 2016 presidential primary. Asked if he thinks a Democrat has a shot against the incumbent, Harrison replied that O’Rourke “may be a nice person,” but “I don’t think Jesus Christ could boot [Cruz] out of Texas.”

But if O’Rourke was worried about his chances against the Republican with near universal name ID, he isn’t admitting it. Speaking to about 150 supporters at the Brandon Community Center in Lufkin — the first of what would be several East Texas stops — the 45-year-old former punk rocker with a slim Obama-esque frame argued that turnout is the key to victory.

Texas “isn’t a red state,” he likes to say. “We’re a non-voting state.”

People watch as U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke gives a speech at the Brandon Community Center in Lufkin on Feb. 9, 2018. O'Rourke is running for U.S. Senate. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

For nearly an hour, a rapt audience listened as O'Rourke wove together his views on immigration and veterans affairs and campaign finance reform with stories of Texans — like Alonso Guillén, a Lufkin man who died rescuing others during Hurricane Harvey, and who was an immigrant protected from deportation under the Obama-era program Trump has moved to end.

He earned nods when he spoke of his decision to run a grass-roots campaign “the old-fashioned way,” with no PACs, focus groups or polls. “No one to serve but us!” interjected a denim-clad woman named Kanita Rees.

O'Rourke also alluded to needing crossover voters if he hopes to have a shot against Cruz, telling the story of a chance encounter with likely GOP voters at a bakery in Henrietta, Texas, in a county that saw 87 percent of its electorate choose Trump.

He assumed few would want to hear from a Democrat, he said, but was recognized by a local couple while ordering food. A lengthy discussion ensued about the couple’s concerns with the Affordable Care Act — which they said was too costly, but too necessary to scrap — and public education funding under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

“Who knows? We may have picked up three votes in Henrietta,” O'Rourke said, drawing chuckles. “I learned something in Henrietta that day. I learned what was important to the people in Henrietta, Texas — at least those I had the chance to listen to and work with — and that is what I’m trying to do in this campaign.”

Though O’Rourke has accused Cruz of not being engaged in small communities, he told the crowd he isn’t running an anti-Cruz campaign.

“How many times have you heard me mention Ted Cruz today?” O’Rourke said. “... You know Ted Cruz. You have formed your judgments, you have your opinion. ... What you deserve is what I want to do, what we can do, together.”

U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke walks onto the stage at the Emporium for the Arts in Woodville on Feb. 9, 2018. (Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

Adding up

As in other states, Texas Democrats draw their biggest support from urban areas. But Harold Cook, a longtime Democratic consultant, said it’s smart for O’Rourke to squeeze every ounce of support from rural areas now.

Closer to November, O’Rourke must invest in the major metropolitan areas that need the biggest get-out-the-vote efforts. “But there’s a whole bunch of people out there who don’t live in those areas, and that stuff adds up,” Cook said.

Even if O’Rourke loses rural counties, “it makes a big difference if you lose Angelina County 52-48, instead of the typical 60-40.”

Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Democrat who unsuccessfully challenged former Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison for her seat in 2006, said getting a Democrat elected statewide requires somebody “who is liked in the small towns ... in those areas where Democrats usually don’t go to campaign.”

“It’s a gesture of respect on the issues,” she continued, pointing to O’Rourke’s push for increased mental health and job training services to veterans. The congressman sits on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.

But whether he has a fighting chance against Cruz depends on whom you ask.

Jim Arnold, a former GOP political consultant who ran Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s 1998 race for lieutenant governor, said O’Rourke is no doubt a “bright guy” who is “generating a lot of enthusiasm,” but the numbers just aren’t there.

“Texas is not even close to being a purple state. It’s not even within spitting distance of being a purple state,” Arnold said. “There may be backlash against Trump in midterm elections, but if it happens in Texas, it will be only in marginal races that were in swing districts anyway. Not something as earth-shattering as a U.S. Senate race.”

An October University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that 69 percent of voters had no opinion of O'Rourke. A survey released this week shows that number is down to 39 percent.

O'Rourke's supporters see other reasons to be hopeful, and point to the large crowds he's drawn in places like Garland, where 2,000 people packed in to hear him speak; and a January poll conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling that found O'Rourke trailing Cruz by just eight points, though internal polls from Cruz's camp suggest the Republican has a far wider lead.

But little is as encouraging to them as O’Rourke’s fundraising prowess.

He’s twice outraised Cruz in a single quarter — bringing in $2.4 million between September and December — though he still lagged behind Cruz in end-of-year cash on hand.

In recent days, the O'Rourke campaign announced it raised $2.2 million in the first 45 days of 2018 alone — a feat that prompted the Cruz campaign to quickly issue its own fundraising solicitation that warned: "this is serious."

Cook, the consultant, said O’Rourke’s fundraising is “surprisingly through the roof. If that weren’t the case, he’d be nowhere.”

1 / 3U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke talks to Karen Duke during a campaign stop in Woodville on Feb. 9, 2018.(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 2 / 3Campaign signs for Beto O'Rourke at the Emporium for the Arts in Woodville, Texas on Feb. 9, 2018. O'Rourke is running for the U.S. Senate. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer) 3 / 3People pass around a donation bucket as U.S. Congressman Beto O'Rourke gives a speech at Brandon Community Center in Lufkin, Texas on Feb. 9, 2018. O'Rourke is running for the U.S. Senate. (Nathan Hunsinger/The Dallas Morning News)(Nathan Hunsinger / Staff Photographer)

'Gives me hope'

Though O’Rourke isn’t widely expected to win the election, the Democrats gathered in the Lufkin community center say he represents something they haven’t felt in a long time: optimism.

Shirley Layton, a veteran and retired telecommunications worker who organized O’Rourke’s first visit to Lufkin, said his campaign inspired her to launch her own run for state Senate. “He got out there and put his feet on the ground and met the people,” she said. “... And that’s what made me realize I could do the same thing.”

Rebecca Jacobs, a retired teacher who drove two hours with her husband to hear O’Rourke speak, said she broke down in tears when he walked through the door — an arrival punctuated by chants of “Beto, Beto.”

She wasn’t politically active until Trump’s election, but has since joined three Democratic groups because “we’re upset every day.”

For her, O’Rourke represents not just a long-awaited blue rebirth, but a chance to push back on Trump’s policies.

“He gives me hope,” Jacobs said. “He is the kind of politician we need. That we want.”