[h=3]By NATHAN KOPPEL And NAFTALI BENDAVID[/h]AUSTIN, Texas—Houston lawyer Rafael "Ted" Cruz easily won a runoff election Tuesday to become the Republican U.S. Senate nominee in Texas, underscoring how tea-party activists are upending this year's GOP primary contests.
Houston Chronicle/Associated PressRafael Cruz with his wife, Heidi, watching returns Tuesday evening.
Mr. Cruz, a tea-party favorite, defeated Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the candidate backed by most of the state GOP establishment, including Gov. Rick Perry. He led by 56% to 44%, with 81% of the state's 7,957 precincts reporting.
Mr. Cruz will hold a commanding advantage in the general election in heavily Republican Texas, which hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. His Democratic opponent in November will be Paul Sadler, a former state representative who defeated retired educator Grady Yarbrough in the Democratic runoff. The winner will fill the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Mr. Cruz's win "is the biggest victory for the tea party to date," said Tom Jensen, director of Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. A May poll by the firm showed Mr. Dewhurst with a 17-point lead, but a July 29 poll of likely GOP voters found a complete reversal, with Mr. Cruz ahead by 10 points.
Mr. Cruz, 41 years old, is a Harvard Law School graduate and the son of a Cuban immigrant father. He won the backing of Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. He favors allowing states to pass Arizona-style legislation targeting illegal immigration and has called for reducing income-tax rates and federal spending, including shuttering agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
After law school, Mr. Cruz was the first Latino to clerk for the nation's top jurist when he was picked by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Texas solicitor general and won cases before the Supreme Court supporting the Pledge of Allegiance, the right to display the Ten Commandments on state grounds and Texas' right to execute a Mexican citizen convicted of murder. More recently, Mr. Cruz has been a partner in Houston for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, one of the nation's leading corporate law firms.
The Texas Republican primary was viewed nationally as a test of the strength of the tea-party movement, which played an insurgent role in 2010 congressional races and this year targeted several big-name GOP lawmakers considered insufficiently conservative, with mixed results.
Tea-party activists scored a major GOP primary victory in May when they toppled longtime Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar by backing state treasurer Richard Mourdock, but were unable to oust Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who beat back a primary challenge in June from former state Senator Dan Liljenquist.
Mr. Dewhurst, 66, who has been lieutenant governor since 2003, seemed on his way to an easy victory after finishing first by 10 points in the May primary—but it wasn't enough of a margin to avoid a runoff.
Harvey Tucker, a political-science professor at Texas A&M University, said the vote should reverberate through state GOP circles. "The race shows it's not necessary to have a track record in the state so long as you capture enough financial support," he said.
Mr. Cruz received considerable assistance from super PACs, including FreedomWorks for America, a tea party-affiliated group. Super PACs spent more than $7 million supporting Mr. Cruz and opposing Mr. Dewhurst. Mr. Cruz "is a great orator who articulates our values and energizes people," said Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks' director of federal and state campaigns.
"People keep asking, 'Is the tea party still alive?' " Mr. DeMint said Tuesday. "I saw it, and it was pretty alive in Texas."
Write to Nathan Koppel at [email protected] and Naftali Bendavid at [email protected]
Mr. Cruz, a tea-party favorite, defeated Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the candidate backed by most of the state GOP establishment, including Gov. Rick Perry. He led by 56% to 44%, with 81% of the state's 7,957 precincts reporting.
Mr. Cruz will hold a commanding advantage in the general election in heavily Republican Texas, which hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. His Democratic opponent in November will be Paul Sadler, a former state representative who defeated retired educator Grady Yarbrough in the Democratic runoff. The winner will fill the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
Mr. Cruz's win "is the biggest victory for the tea party to date," said Tom Jensen, director of Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. A May poll by the firm showed Mr. Dewhurst with a 17-point lead, but a July 29 poll of likely GOP voters found a complete reversal, with Mr. Cruz ahead by 10 points.
Mr. Cruz, 41 years old, is a Harvard Law School graduate and the son of a Cuban immigrant father. He won the backing of Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. He favors allowing states to pass Arizona-style legislation targeting illegal immigration and has called for reducing income-tax rates and federal spending, including shuttering agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency.
After law school, Mr. Cruz was the first Latino to clerk for the nation's top jurist when he was picked by former Chief Justice William Rehnquist. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Texas solicitor general and won cases before the Supreme Court supporting the Pledge of Allegiance, the right to display the Ten Commandments on state grounds and Texas' right to execute a Mexican citizen convicted of murder. More recently, Mr. Cruz has been a partner in Houston for Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, one of the nation's leading corporate law firms.
The Texas Republican primary was viewed nationally as a test of the strength of the tea-party movement, which played an insurgent role in 2010 congressional races and this year targeted several big-name GOP lawmakers considered insufficiently conservative, with mixed results.
Tea-party activists scored a major GOP primary victory in May when they toppled longtime Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar by backing state treasurer Richard Mourdock, but were unable to oust Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, who beat back a primary challenge in June from former state Senator Dan Liljenquist.
Mr. Dewhurst, 66, who has been lieutenant governor since 2003, seemed on his way to an easy victory after finishing first by 10 points in the May primary—but it wasn't enough of a margin to avoid a runoff.
Harvey Tucker, a political-science professor at Texas A&M University, said the vote should reverberate through state GOP circles. "The race shows it's not necessary to have a track record in the state so long as you capture enough financial support," he said.
Mr. Cruz received considerable assistance from super PACs, including FreedomWorks for America, a tea party-affiliated group. Super PACs spent more than $7 million supporting Mr. Cruz and opposing Mr. Dewhurst. Mr. Cruz "is a great orator who articulates our values and energizes people," said Brendan Steinhauser, FreedomWorks' director of federal and state campaigns.
"People keep asking, 'Is the tea party still alive?' " Mr. DeMint said Tuesday. "I saw it, and it was pretty alive in Texas."
Write to Nathan Koppel at [email protected] and Naftali Bendavid at [email protected]