Texas Senate candidates in North Texas for last day of early voting
DALLAS - Both candidates battling for the U.S. Senate seat in Texas are in North Texas for the last day of early voting.
The race between Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Congressman Beto O’Rourke is one of the most closely watched races in the country.
On Friday, O’Rourke made five stops around Dallas-Fort Worth. He first spoke in Lewisville at Wayne Frady Park. There, he praised voters for turning out in great numbers.
“It is those of us in our mid-40s who may have never voted before but now know it is the most important midterm election in our lives,” he said. “It’s Republicans who’ve never cast a ballot for a Democrat.”
O’Rourke’s final push to voters was for immigration reform, universal health care and better teacher pay.
“Too many of you teaching to a high stakes test that does not measure your potential in the classroom,” he said.
Like at other rallies, O’Rourke made no mention of his opponent, Senator Cruz.
“Before we see ourselves as Democrats or Republicans, we will insist on seeing ourselves as Texans, Americans and as human beings,” he said.
A new poll shows the race is essentially in a statistical tie, given the margin of error. Emerson College found Sen. Cruz leads O’Rourke by just three percentage points.
In the meantime, Cruz pulled his bus tour up to the Cendera Center in Fort Worth for a well-attended rally. One of the topics he spoke about was health care.
“Where is Beto on health care? Well, he’s voted 67 times to keep Obamacare. He’s turned a blind eye,” Cruz said. “He won’t listen to the suffering to the pain Obamacare’s causing to the people of Texas. He’s not willing to give any relief at all. In fact, he wants to make it worse.”
Cruz stayed on message, touting the strong Texas economy.
“When we have historic economic growth record, low Hispanic and African American unemployment, who in their right mind would want to mess that up and say let's go back to the Obama stagnation?” he said.
Cruz continued to unleash attacks on his opponent.
“Where is Beto on job-killing regulations? He wants more of them,” he said.
With just four days until Election Day, both candidates discussed a video released by James O'Keefe's Project Veritas organization.
O'Keefe dubs himself a journalist and is known for undercover videos that’s deceptive editing often targets Democrats and liberal organizations. His latest video released Thursday alleged O'Rourke's campaign used campaign money to help the migrant caravan.
O'Rourke's campaign told the Texas Tribune the allegations are false and that campaign staff had actually given just under $300 worth of items to a charity helping undocumented immigrants unrelated to the caravan.
Both candidates were also asked about turnout for an upcoming story about the race on ‘60 Minutes,’ revealing the emotions of both going into Election Day.
“What the O'Rourke campaign has had on their side is intensity. The liberals who are in Texas are really, really mad. They hate President Trump,” Cruz said. “That anger is dangerous. That anger is mobilizing. It means they are going to show up no matter what. As I've said, they'll crawl over broken glass to show up.”
“You working under the assumption that the more people that show up, the better your odds of winning,” a reporter asked O’Rourke.
“Yeah,” he replied. “I think the more people that show up, the better we do.”
Cruz has a dozen more stops in Texas through the weekend and next week ahead of Election Day.
O’Rourke also had stops in Carrollton, Plano, Murphy and Dallas on Friday.
If you need more information before you vote, check out the FOX 4 Voting Guide. Early voting ends Friday. Election day is Tuesday.