Democrats have just woken up to the fact that they’re facing a bloodbath in the 2018 election.
Even in the best of times, the midterm map looks ugly for the left, with the shrinking party forced to defend multiple seats deep in red territory.
In a sign of just how desperate the party is, they’re making a Hail Mary play for Ted Cruz’s seat in Texas – a state that hasn’t voted for a Democrat for the Senate since 1988!
They’re turning Beto O’Rourke, a pro-marijuana failed punk rock musician from El Paso who just announced he’s going to run against Cruz in 2018.
Never heard of him? Neither have most Texans, despite the fact that he’s been in the House of Representatives for six years.
But as Texans get to know him, it’s not likely they’ll love him. He’s argued that “a fluid border between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico, has been good for both cities,” the Houston Chronicle noted.
That’s in direct opposition to the clear message of the 2016 election, when Americans – including Texans – voted for TIGHTER borders, not one that’s more “fluid.”
“I know Beto. And he’s a good guy. But I think this is a suicide mission,” Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told Politico. “We haven’t elected a Democrat statewide since … 1994.”
That was the year George W. Bush defeated Democratic heavy-hitter Ann Richards for governor, but Democrats won a handful of other statewide offices including lieutenant governor and attorney general.
Since then, Democrats have had a tougher time in Texas than a snowball in O’Rourke’s hometown of El Paso.
But the Democrats have to try. They don’t have a choice, because 2018 could be the end of the party as a national force for years to come.
They hold just 46 seats in the Senate, along with two independents who caucus with them. If they fall below 40, they will lose the ability to filibuster and become completely irrelevant in Washington.
That’s a very real possibility, because 23 of the 34 Senate seats up for election in 2018 are Democrats along with both of those independents.
The Democrats will attempt to hold onto seats in FIVE states that voted for Donald Trump in 2016 as well as Mitt Romney in 2012: Indiana, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota and West Virginia.
They’re also being forced to defend seats in the three onetime Democratic strongholds that Trump won in 2016: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.
Democrats will also struggle to keep their seats in the swing states of Ohio and Florida, both of which Trump won.
So without a win in Texas, they could easily fall below that 40-seat threshold.
But the Democrats are right in one sense: Cruz is beatable, with February polls showing just 20 percent of Texans “approve strongly” and 18 percent “approve somewhat” of his job performance.
Compare that to 29 percent who “disapprove strongly” and 10 percent who “disapprove somewhat” and you can see he has a Texas-sized problem.
But it’s not a Democrat who can take him down.
There’s at least some chance Cruz will face a primary challenge, especially given his treatment of Donald Trump at last year’s Republican National Convention. Cruz was practically booed off the stage when telling Republicans to “vote your conscience” instead of endorsing Trump.
The president says all is forgiven.
The voters? That’s another story.
There may be a new senator from Texas in 2018… but it’ll almost certainly be a Republican.
-The Horn News editorial team