The Texas Senate
race is heating up with the old –vs- new young blood.
The Republican Senate
race in Texas is now a familiar one: A veteran politician supported by the GOP
establishment is challenged by a young insurgent backed by national conservative
groups.
David Dewhurst is
the reserved, self-made millionaire and lieutenant governor facing off against
Ted Cruz, the feisty son of a Cuban exile who calls himself "a proven
fighter for liberty because his family knows what it means to lose it."
The underdog is
former Dallas mayor and businessman Tom Leppert, who offers himself as the
no-nonsense alternative to politics as usual.
In heavily
Republican Texas, whoever wins the GOP primary on Tuesday is almost a sure bet to
replace retiring Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Cruz and Leppert
acknowledge that Dewhurst is more familiar with voters and has more cash - he's
spent $9.2 million of his $200 million fortune on the primary. But both hope to
force a runoff, and if one succeeds, the runner-up could win in July.
Conservative
groups that complain many Senate Republicans now in office are too quick to
compromise have spent more than $4 million trying to help Cruz. The benefactors
include South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint's Senate Conservatives Fund, the
anti-tax Club for Growth and former Texas Rep. Dick Armey's FreedomWorks.
Cruz, 41, made his
name representing Texas before the Supreme Court in high-profile cases. He has
endorsements from former GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and former
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in addition to several tea party groups.
Dewhurst, 66, has
the backing of Gov. Rick Perry and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as well
as support from the state's most influential Republican clubs, anti-abortion
organizations and political action committees.
The competition
between Dewhurst and Cruz turned ugly early. Each has spent more than $4
million on TV and radio attack ads. Cruz, meanwhile, attacks Dewhurst as a
"timid, moderate politician" who too often has compromised with
Democrats. Leppert calls Dewhurst a career politician and Cruz a government
staffer. Dewhurst says Leppert's record as Dallas mayor is too liberal for
Texas Republicans.
Whoever wins the
GOP nomination will face one of two Democrats, former state Rep. Paul Sadler
and party activist Sean Hubbard. No Democrat has won a statewide office in
Texas since 1994
