HOUSTON — The condolence emails are already coming in, from New York, and California, and from my neighbors down the street, who are mostly limiting themselves to unprintable but predictable four-letter words. Yes, Beto O’Rourke lost to Ted Cruz, 51-48 percent, an outcome that surprised almost no seasoned politicos around these parts — they’ve been predicting it for months, some since the congressman from El Paso first announced his candidacy last year. Rest assured that the Monday-morning quarterbacking will proceed apace starting … now.

In fact, it kind of started last Sunday, Nov. 4, with a lengthy critique in Politico that quoted mostly Republican operatives — Karl Rove, back from the dead — who cited Mr. O’Rourke’s failure to tack toward the middle, instead doing crazy things (in Texas, at least) like supporting the N.F.L. players who took a knee to protest police brutality. “Did Beto Blow It?” was the pre-emptory headline.

There will be a lot more reasons given for why Mr. O’Rourke lost: Some experts will suggest old ideas, stressing the power of the incumbency, and others newer ideas, as in, Mr. O’Rourke spent too much time on social media encouraging the same like-minded folks to keep talking to one another. People will say that the campaign was disorganized, more focused on the candidate’s winning personality than real issues. That Mr. O’Rourke let Mr. Cruz define him, instead of the opposite — and Mr. Cruz did just that, painting Mr. O’Rourke as a far-left-wing nut who would let terrorists cross the Rio Grande and endanger the lives of God-fearing Texans. Whenever I heard Mr. Cruz opine that Mr. O’Rourke was just wrong for Texas, my stomach would lurch a little.

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But before all of Mr. O’Rourke’s errors are carved in stone in the next few hours, maybe it’s worth taking a minute to say that, whatever his flaws, Mr. O’Rourke came very close to defeating a powerful incumbent — O.K., not one who was exactly beloved — and he did it pretty much as he promised, without going negative and by raising a whole bunch of money without the help of PACs or fancy political consultants. (The early fears that Mr. O’Rourke would be eclipsed by Mr. Cruz’s millions in dark money never materialized; Mr. Cruz raised $40 million to Mr. O’Rourke’s $70 million.)