TEXAS - In what might have been the most closely watched race in the 2018 midterm election, Ted Cruz, junior United States senator from Texas, weathered the Beto O’Rourke storm to retain his Senate seat.
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Hailing from Houston, Cruz has served in the Senate since being elected in 2012. Cruz in 2016 unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for president.
Cruz supports the death penalty and opposes socialized medicine and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. In addition, he is staunchly pro-life.
In October, as Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke was gaining on him, Cruz appeared alongside former rival President Donald Trump at a large campaign rally in Houston.
O’Rourke, a little-known U.S. representative from El Paso just a year ago, ran a largely grassroots campaign that garnered him support even in some of Texas’s more conservative regions.
The contest was close. Depending on the poll, Cruz in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day lead O’Rourke by five or six points or was in a statistical dead heat with him.
The candidates squared off in two debates.
Cruz, who was raised in Houston, holds degrees from Harvard Law School and Princeton University. He previously served as director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an associate deputy attorney general at the U.S. Justice Department and as domestic policy advisor on the 2000 George W. Bush presidential campaign.