In the 2000 presidential election, I voted for Ralph Nader, the Green Party candidate, in order to make an abstract statement about the two-party political system, which had provided voters with a choice between two competent and well-meaning centrists.

I was in college, at the time, in New York. Al Gore, the Democrat, was bound to win the state’s electoral votes, and did so. Still, I’ve never forgotten the remorse I felt on election night, as Florida wavered between Gore and Republican George W. Bush. I didn’t even like Nader. I knew he wouldn’t be the next president. But I hadn’t considered the possibility that my decision might have practical consequences.

Thanks to voters like me, that year’s election was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. So I’ve subsequently voted for the Republican candidate or Democratic nominee, after considering which of the two would be more well-suited for the office they are seeking — relative to their opponent, and in light of the political and economic circumstances.

And I’ve decided to do a series of columns evaluating this year’s notable races from that perspective, starting with the fight at the top of the ticket. U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, a Democrat from El Paso, is seeking to deny Republican Ted Cruz a second term in the U.S. Senate.

Polls suggest the race is close, and I suggest you ignore the polls. All they really tell you is that this year’s Senate race is closer than one might expect. But at this point you don’t need polls to tell you that, do you?

O’Rourke has been turning out massive crowds at town halls all over the state since announcing his campaign last February. A lot of Texas voters are genuinely enthusiastic about his candidacy.

Many of those voters have been hurt before, after pinning their hopes on various Democrats. I can understand why they would be nervous about getting their hopes up, in this case.

In recent months, O’Rourke has been profiled by a number of national outlets — including Town & Country, a magazine that rarely takes an interest in Texas politics. He’s also starring in two viral videos currently making the rounds on social media — one in which he rides a skateboard in a Whataburger parking lot, and another in which he responds to a question about NFL players who choose to kneel during the national anthem with a stirring defense of America’s civic traditions. Such things would make a cynic suspicious.

But the buzz around O’Rourke is misleading rather than misplaced, in my view. I first met him almost a decade ago, when he was serving on El Paso’s city council. That’s not a glamorous gig, or a stepping stone to statewide office, and O’Rourke didn’t express any such ambitions. Then, as now, he was preoccupied with the concerns of his constituents.

Meanwhile Cruz, who was elected in 2012, began the cycle with certain vulnerabilities. He fought ferociously for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, and pointedly refused to endorse Donald Trump at the party’s national convention in Cleveland. But in September, Cruz agreed to support his party’s nominee, after Trump promised that he would, if elected, nominate a conservative to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court that Senate Republicans had prevented Barack Obama from filling.

In the aftermath of the election, I felt more sympathy for Cruz than for most of his fellow Republicans. He had made a devil’s bargain, perhaps. But Trump actually delivered on the promise he made during the campaign by nominating Neal Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, which can serve as a check on the power of the president.

The same is true of Congress, at least in theory. But in practice, congressional leaders tend to be quite cooperative with the president, if he is a member of the same party. And the Republicans who control both chambers of Congress have been oddly deferential to Trump, even when he does things they disagree with, like slap tariffs on all of America’s major trading partners at once.

O’Rourke, as a Democrat, would be free to object to that — and as a member of the Senate, he would object to Trump’s trade war. He’s done so on the campaign trail, when the issue comes up, and trade is among the issues that does come up if you’re running for statewide office in Texas.

Ultimately, then, the Senate race presents Texas voters with a choice between two respectable candidates, both of whom are qualified for the office in question, as a general matter. Something worth keeping in mind, however, is that this statewide office is a federal one and that Cruz, the incumbent, is seemingly constrained by Trump-era political dynamics. Conservatives might not rule him out on that basis, but it’s something to keep in mind, because the same would not be true of O’Rourke.

In this race, at least, your vote might actually affect the outcome, so you should definitely vote your conscience.

erica.grieder@chron.com

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