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Ted Cruz Defeats Beto O'Rourke In Texas Senate Race

Sen. Ted Cruz waves to supporters as he arrives at a Get Out The Vote Bus Tour rally on Monday in Cypress, Texas.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Sen. Ted Cruz waves to supporters as he arrives at a Get Out The Vote Bus Tour rally on Monday in Cypress, Texas.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz has won re-election in Texas, the AP projects, beating back a strong challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

O'Rourke smashed fundraising records, raising more than $60 million for his bid, and generated lots of grassroots enthusiasm and national attention with his unconventional campaign. And while Democrats have argued for years that Texas was primed to turn blue with its growing Hispanic population, the GOP lean of the state was ultimately too much for O'Rourke to overcome.

Cruz, who made a failed bid for president in 2016, has some detractors within his own party because of his controversial style, but he was still able to finish with a win and will return to the Senate.

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Jessica Taylor is a political reporter with NPR based in Washington, DC, covering elections and breaking news out of the White House and Congress. Her reporting can be heard and seen on a variety of NPR platforms, from on air to online. For more than a decade, she has reported on and analyzed House and Senate elections and is a contributing author to the 2020 edition of The Almanac of American Politics and is a senior contributor to The Cook Political Report.