Beto O'Rourke Earns the Endorsements of Texas' Two Largest Newspapers

Authored by gq.com and submitted by _basquiat
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The Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle editorial boards both decide to back Ted Cruz’s challenger.

On a nationwide basis, Texas Senate candidate Beto O'Rourke is far more popular than Ted Cruz, one of the least appealing people in political history. The challenger has raised an obscene $61.8 million, none of it from political action committees—a figure that blows Cruz's $35.1 million out of the desert.

Unfortunately, O'Rourke's fate will be decided by Texans, and only those Texans who actually vote on November 6. In a state with low voter enthusiasm and your standard iterations of Republican-spearheaded voter suppression, every little boost of publicity helps his odds, which is why the recent endorsements of the right-leaning Dallas Morning News and Houston Chronicle might—MIGHT—be significant.

O’Rourke is no conservative Democrat. His positions on taxes, immigration, the judiciary, federal regulations and health care are further to the left than many statewide voters would like. But he is shattering expectations in a state where Democrats haven’t won a statewide race in decades. The dollars he has raised and the number of supporters he has garnered are evidence of an embedded hunger in this state and country for a campaign that’s based on unifying communities.

In the divisive times in which we live, we believe that tone and leadership are the top issues with which to judge these candidates' tenures in office. So we’re placing a bet on Beto.

Last week, the Chronicle's board also endorsed O'Rourke, awarding him four-and-a-half stars out of five (so, an album of the year contender), while giving Cruz just two stars (so, a Greta Van Fleet record).

With eyes clear but certainly not starry, we enthusiastically endorse Beto O'Rourke for U.S. Senate. The West Texas congressman's command of issues that matter to this state, his unaffected eloquence and his eagerness to reach out to all Texans make him one of the most impressive candidates this editorial board has encountered in many years.

The Chronicle backed Cruz in 2012; the Morning News did not, and has never liked Cruz much, but as HuffPost notes, the paper backed Mitt Romney in 2012. Both publications made mention of the enthusiasm surrounding O'Rourke's candidacy, which stems in part from his penchant for producing genuinely inspiring moments on the campaign trail.

What remains less clear is whether newspaper endorsements actually, you know, matter. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, Hillary Clinton won 56 of 60 major newspaper endorsements in 2016—including the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle. That didn't work out so well. But unlike Clinton, O'Rourke isn't constrained by the whims of the Electoral College; if he gets the most votes, he wins, a concept that (1) should perhaps have wider applicability in important elections and (2) potentially amplifies the importance of a newspaper's endorsement within the state that voters reside.

Regardless of whether any tangible benefits exist here, there is undeniable solace to be taken in the apparent backstory to the Morning News endorsement:

TooShiftyForYou on October 25th, 2018 at 22:34 UTC »

With eyes clear but certainly not starry, we enthusiastically endorse Beto O'Rourke for U.S. Senate. The West Texas congressman's command of issues that matter to this state, his unaffected eloquence and his eagerness to reach out to all Texans make him one of the most impressive candidates this editorial board has encountered in many years.

Pretty strong endorsement from a board that actually endorsed Cruz in 2012.

thewateroflife on October 25th, 2018 at 22:02 UTC »

It hasn’t moved the needle on the oddsmakers sites yet. Two weeks left to change everyone’s minds. Get out the vote.

SATexas1 on October 25th, 2018 at 21:58 UTC »

I voted for Beto today. It’s a longshot but I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t vote.

Get out and vote please