What to Look For in Friday's First Debate Between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke

When Republican incumbent U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and his Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke, face off in their first debate Friday, watch as two long-winded politicians struggle for brevity. This past weekend, a reporter asked Cruz a simple question about Hurricane Harvey. His answer lasted 3 minutes, 57 seconds—which is forever on television. O’Rourke recently used 3 minutes, 38 seconds to give his defense of National Football League players taking a knee during the national anthem to protest police violence against blacks. The abridged version of the candidates of verbosity will be the time limits set by the debate moderators. Expect the overtime buzzer to be sounding.

Cruz will have a bit of an advantage, because CNN hosted him in a series of debates with independent Bernie Sanders in 2017. And watch as Cruz tries to stamp O’Rourke as a Sanders-style liberal out of touch with mainstream Texans. A preview of what that might look like:

Although some of his issues are similar to Sanders’s—such as a desire for universal health care—O’Rourke has tried to run above partisanship and attacks on Cruz, making the case that the election is about values, all the while firing up his Democratic base by opposing issues pushed by President Trump. O’Rourke has said he would vote to impeach Trump if it came up in the House while he is serving, but he has reserved judgment on what he would do if the case came to him in the Senate.



Most political debates are really just dueling pep rallies, and, in the case of this first debate for Cruz and O’Rourke at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the campaigns are controlling access to the auditorium. Beyond the respective cheering sections will be the reporters and political junkies who will watch closely for the NASCAR pileup, such as when former Governor Rick Perry, in a presidential debate, had to name the three federal agencies he wanted to abolish and could only remember two. Oops. And despite the Friday night time-frame, in which the candidates are competing against high school football, expect Texas voters who are only modestly interested in politics to tune into their local Nexstar television station at 6 p.m. on Friday for what is likely to become a lively issues discussion.

Read more: https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/look-fridays-first-debate-ted-cruz-beto-orourke/