AUSTIN, Texas — Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke are counting on a ton of supporters to help them finish strong.

  • Senate Race between Sen. Ted cruz and Beto O'Rourke is race to watch in Texas
  • Cruz is pushing his base to go vote

Cruz is relying on Texas being a historically red state to lead him to a victory, and banking on his base to turn out to the polls to re-elect him.

Back in his home city of Houston, Cruz is continuing to urge Texas conservatives to not be complacent.

He's pushing his Republican base to go vote, knowing that historically they've made up 60 percent of the voting population.

"If you think the election is pretty much in the bag, what you want to do is get your last brigade of base voters out. Which means, attack the other guy, go for his throat, and fire up your base," analyst Peck Young said.  

Young says with just hours to go, Cruz's strategy is to rally the ones he knows he can count on. His approach continues to be to paint O'Rourke as someone who’s wrong for Texas.

"When it comes to taxes, he wants higher taxes. When it comes to regulations, job killing regulations that hammers the state of Texas, he wants higher regulations," Cruz said.  

So how effective is this last-minute messaging? The political analyst we spoke with says it can be effective until about 8 p.m. the night before Election Day.

After that, the candidates just have to sit back and wait.