Saying that “today the eyes of the whole country are on Kansas,” U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas urged voters in Kansas’ 4th District to support Ron Estes in Tuesday’s congressional special election. 
 
 Cruz, a 2016 presidential candidate, rallied Monday afternoon with about 200 Estes supporters in a hangar stop near Eisenhower National Airport, the last major campaign event leading up to Tuesday’s election. 
 
 He called on members of the crowd to vote and to take nine others with them to the polls. 
 
 “Our enemy right now is complacency,” he said. 
 
 Our enemy right now is complacency. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, at a rally in support of Republican congressional candidate Ron Estes 
 
 Estes, the Republican state treasurer, is locked in a hard-fought battle with Democratic civil rights attorney James Thompson for the seat vacated by former Rep. Mike Pompeo. Libertarian Chris Rockhold, a flight instructor, is also in the race. 
 
 Cruz said Donald Trump’s victory in the November presidential election was an “overwhelming cry from the American people to change the path we’re on.” 
 
 “That’s the mandate we’ve been given with a Republican president and both houses of Congress,” Cruz said. 
 
 He said it’s important to send Estes to Congress to work toward repealing the Affordable Care Act, reforming tax policy and cutting regulation on business. 
 
 He called Thompson “another knee-jerk vote for (House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi.” 
 
 Cruz deflected a question about whether his presence indicated concern at the national Republican Party level about an Estes victory on Tuesday. 
 
 “My being here is indicative that I think this race matters,” Cruz said. 
 
 GOP boost 
 
 Cruz’s visit was part of a full-court press by the national GOP to boost Estes’ campaign in the final days. “On Tuesday, Republican Ron Estes needs your vote and needs it badly,” President Trump told voters in an automated call on Monday, calling Estes “a conservative leader who’s going to work with me to make America great again.” 
 
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 President Trump records robocall urging voters to back Estes Hear President Trump’s robocall urging voters to vote for GOP congressional candidate Ron Estes. President Trump records robocall urging voters to back Estes Hear President Trump’s robocall urging voters to vote for GOP congressional candidate Ron Estes. jgreen@wichitaeagle.com 
 
 Estes also benefited from an 11th-hour, $92,000 infusion of campaign cash from the National Republican Congressional Committee. 
 
 Cruz is a popular national GOP figure among Kansas Republicans, admired for his strong positions on social issues, especially his opposition to abortion. 
 
 Last year, he was an easy winner over Trump in the Kansas Republican presidential caucus. 
 
 Thompson said he’s not intimidated that Estes brought in Cruz to campaign for him. 
 
 He said he thinks it shows the weakness of the Estes campaign. 
 
 I love the fact that he can’t fight his own fights. James Thompson, Democratic congressional candidate, on Ron Estes 
 
 “I love the fact that he can’t fight his own fights,” Thompson said. “He’s got the vice president making phone calls for him. He’s got the speaker (House Speaker Paul Ryan) who’s sent out a fundraising letter, and now he’s got Senator Cruz coming in, and I’m still here fighting the same fight I’ve been fighting all along. 
 
 “I think it’s sad he can’t do debates, he can’t do his own fundraising and he can’t fight his own fight,” Thompson added. “So if he can’t do any of those things, why is he running in the first place?” 
 
 Rally reactions 
 
 Back at the airport, tax accountant Myron Ackerman, 62, was fairly typical of the crowd. He’s been active in conservative politics and said he once served as a campaign treasurer but never will again. 
 
 “I’ve worked with Ron’s wife a lot for Americans for Prosperity,” he said. In November, Susan Estes left that organization, which was founded and funded by Koch Industries executives and advocates for low taxes and light regulation of business. 
 
 “If her husband listens to Susan, I know he’s going to hear good things,” said Ackerman, whose biggest concerns are national security and the recent missile attack by the U.S. on Syria. 
 
 “I hope it’s a good rally point for the party to get out and vote tomorrow,” added Jonathan Bender, an aircraft maintenance worker for Yingling Aviation, which hosted the event. 
 
 He liked what he heard. 
 
 “All of them (speakers at the rally) speak to my moral and ethical values. That’s why I align myself with the Republican Party,” he said. “Of course, the right to life, health care reform, gun control, those are all issues that are near and dear to me anyway.” 
 
 Cruz drew some of his biggest applause when he pressed for a flat tax and for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. 
 
 In a statement he called “somewhat tongue-in-cheek,” he proposed padlocking the IRS building in Washington and sending its 90,000 employees to the southern border to deter illegal immigrants. 
 
 He said if you walked across the desert to the border and found 90,000 IRS agents waiting, “You’d turn around and go home, too.” 
 
 The 4th District seat has been open since late January, when Pompeo resigned from Congress to accept a position as director of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Trump administration. 
 
 The election marks the first major electoral test since Trump won the presidential election in November and the first of four congressional elections to fill seats vacated by Trump appointees. ||||| HOUSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump escalated his immigration rhetoric at a midterm rally in Texas on Monday, falsely accusing Democrats of "encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws, violate our borders and overwhelm our nation." 
 
 With weeks to go before Election Day, Trump is seeking to drive Republican turnout with his hard-line immigration policies. He cast the November choice in stark terms before the Houston rally for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, saying Democrats "have launched an assault on the sovereignty of our country." 
 
 Trump spoke before a massive crowd on behalf of his former foe, who faces a strong challenge from Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke. When the two competed in the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Trump would frequently deride his rival as "Lyin' Ted" but said in Texas that their relationship had come a long way. 
 
 "Nobody has helped me more with your tax cut, with your regulation," Trump said, also attacking O'Rourke, as a "stone-cold phony." 
 
 With the midterms drawing near, Trump has emphasized immigration, targeting a migrant caravan heading to the U.S. southern border. The president's focus on immigration politics comes as he seeks to counter Democratic enthusiasm in November. Trump believes that his campaign pledges, including his much vaunted — and still-unfulfilled — promise to quickly build a U.S.-Mexico border wall, are still rallying cries. 
 
 Trump is betting that his latest focus will further erode the enthusiasm gap that began to close during the debate over Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court. But the approach offers both risks and rewards. 
 
 The hard-line rhetoric may be popular among the red-state rural Republicans who will play an outsized role in the top Senate contests. But it may further alienate the moderate Republicans and women in the overwhelmingly suburban races that will decide the House majority — including several in Texas, California and Florida that feature large Hispanic populations. 
 
 On Monday night, Trump called the caravan an "assault on our country" and suggested, without citing evidence, that "Democrats had something to do with it." He added: "We need a wall built fast." 
 
 Earlier Monday, Trump said the U.S. will begin "cutting off, or substantially reducing" aid to three Central American nations because of the caravan. 
 
 In Texas, an enthusiastic crowd packed into Houston's Toyota Center, wearing red Make America Great Again hats and waving signs, including some with the president's new catchphrase, "Jobs vs. Mobs." 
 
 Speaking before Trump took the stage, Cruz made clear that their conflict was behind them and that the two were working together. His biggest applause came when he predicted that "in 2020, Donald Trump will be overwhelmingly re-elected." 
 
 A series of elected state officials were among the warmup speakers, as well as Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump and son Eric Trump, who told the audience that "we are driving the Democrats absolutely nuts." 
 
 Trump gleefully used his latest attack line against Democrats, saying, "Democrats produce mobs, Republicans produce jobs." He declared Democrats would be a "big risk to the American family," and went after some of his favorite targets, including Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, California Rep. Maxine Waters, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. 
 
 The president stressed tax cuts, the strong economy and the hurricane response in the state. He repeated his pledge for a new middle-income tax cut of about 10 percent, though he offered few details on the plan. Trump said they would be "putting it in" next week, though Congress is not in session. 
 
 Trump also criticized so-called globalists, declaring, "You know what I am? I'm a nationalist." 
 
 Trump's Texas stop is part of a campaign blitz that is expected to last until Election Day. 
 
 Although political relationships tend to be fluid, Trump's appearance for Cruz is notable, given that the two were bitter enemies during the 2016 primaries. After Trump insulted Cruz's wife and father, and Cruz refused to endorse Trump at the Republican National Convention, it was far from clear that the two would ever put it all behind them. 
 
 But they started rebuilding in the closing days of the campaign and have worked together since Trump took the White House. 
 
 The White House views Cruz as a loyal vote for his agenda. Trump promised he would come to Texas after the Senate race grew closer than expected, with O'Rourke out-fundraising Cruz and drawing large and enthusiastic crowds around the state. Cruz, who is leading O'Rourke in the polls, said over the summer that he would welcome Trump's support, though he has brushed off any suggestion he'd need Trump to win. 
 
 During the 2016 Republican primary, Trump assailed Cruz as a liar and "dishonest politician," insulted his wife's appearance and promoted unsubstantiated claims that Cruz's father had links to President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. 
 
 Trump on Monday did not voice any second thoughts about labeling Cruz the son of a presidential killer, telling reporters, "I don't regret anything." 
 
 Cruz gave back as good as he got in 2016. He savaged Trump as a "pathological liar," an "amoral bully" and a "sniveling coward." After Cruz lost the primary, he gave a speech at the Republican National Convention in which he did not endorse Trump and instead called on Republicans to "vote your conscience," drawing boos from the crowd. But he announced his support about a month before Election Day — and won points in Trump's camp for not withdrawing after the "Access Hollywood" tape was released in which Trump bragged about groping women. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Steve Peoples in New York contributed to this report. ||||| Rep. Darrell Issa Darrell Edward IssaMidterms in 2018 become most expensive in history Dems target small cluster of states in battle for House Painting of Trump with past GOP presidents hung up in White House MORE (R-Calif.) on Saturday downplayed renewed scrutiny over whether President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump to fundraise for 3 Republicans running for open seats: report Trump to nominate former Monsanto exec to top Interior position White House aides hadn’t heard of Trump's new tax cut: report MORE knew in advance about his son's meeting with a Russian lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHillicon Valley: Bolton tells Russians 2016 meddling had little effect | Facebook eyes major cyber firm | Saudi site gets hacked | Softbank in spotlight over Saudi money | YouTube fights EU 'meme ban' proposal Dems lower expectations for 'blue wave' Election Countdown: Takeaways from heated Florida governor's debate | DNC chief pushes back on 'blue wave' talk | Manchin faces progressive backlash | Trump heads to Houston rally | Obama in Las Vegas | Signs of huge midterm turnout MORE before the 2016 election, saying "nobody’s going to be surprised." 
 
 Issa was pressed by Fox News's Neil Cavuto during an interview on whether Trump could face legal consequences if proof emerges that he knew about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting that was billed to Donald Trump Jr. Donald (Don) John TrumpElection Countdown: Takeaways from heated Florida governor's debate | DNC chief pushes back on 'blue wave' talk | Manchin faces progressive backlash | Trump heads to Houston rally | Obama in Las Vegas | Signs of huge midterm turnout The Hill's Morning Report — Presented by PhRMA — Early ballots pouring in with 15 days to the midterms O'Rourke's rise raises hopes for Texas Dems down ballot MORE as "part of Russia and its government's support" for Trump. 
 
 “If he’s proven to have not told the whole truth about the fact that campaigns look for dirt, and if someone offers it, you listen to them, nobody’s going to be surprised,” Issa told Cavuto. “There are some things in politics that you just take for granted.” 
 
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 "You don’t think this has any long-term impact?” Cavuto pressed. “He wouldn’t be the first politician, or president for that matter, to maybe just misrepresent things?” 
 
 “Businessmen listen to almost everyone who might be helpful, and by the way, they make pragmatic decisions about how to make bad stories go away,” Issa replied. 
 
 Issa also attacked Trump's former longtime attorney and fixer Michael Cohen in the interview for his supposed betrayal of Trump's trust by secretly recording some of their conversations. 
 
 Cohen's attorney this week provided a recording to CNN of Trump and Cohen discussing a possible payment to American Media Inc. to purchase the rights to the story of Karen McDougal, an ex-Playboy model who claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006. 
 
 “A turncoat lawyer, a lawyer who deserves to be disbarred for a number of his actions including recording his client clandestinely, makes a much better story than ‘Businessman Makes America Great Again,' ” Issa told Fox News. 
 
 The recording shocked Washington and seemed to reveal that Trump had prior knowledge about a payment surrounding McDougal's claims. 
 
 Trump's current lawyer Rudy Giuliani told The Washington Post that no such payment was ever made and he blasted Cohen in a CNN interview this week, calling him a "pathological liar." 
 
 Cohen also made headlines this week after CNN reported that he was claiming Trump knew in advance about the controversial meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Kremlin-linked attorney who promised compromising information on Clinton in 2016. 
 
 The meeting has become a main focus of Robert Mueller Robert Swan MuellerSasse: US should applaud choice of Mueller to lead Russia probe MORE's special counsel investigation, which is examining allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 presidential election. 
 
 Trump on Friday insisted in a tweet that he didn't know about the Trump Tower meeting while accusing Cohen of making up the claim to get out of legal scrutiny from federal prosecutors in New York. ||||| STAFFORD — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, formally began his re-election campaign Monday, hitting the road extolling Lone Star State exceptionalism — especially in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. 
 
 It was an ostensibly unifying message that complemented Cruz’s new campaign slogan — “Tough as Texas” — and punctuated a period of home-state re-engagement following his unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign. Still, as his second-term bid got underway Monday, there were abounding signs that the Cruz Texas elected in 2012 — conservative insurgent, political provocateur — is not about to tone it down. 
 
 At his first stop of the day in Beaumont — and later at a boisterous rally here — Cruz segued from lengthy recollections of Texan heroics to blunt warnings about a dangerous Democratic vision for the country on the line in November. Before Cruz spoke here, supporters were shown a tongue-in-cheek ad depicting the consequences of Republicans staying home this fall, complete with news anchors talking of new Democratic majorities impeaching President Donald Trump and over a million undocumented immigrants suddenly being granted citizenship. 
 
 When Cruz took the stage, he spent a good chunk of his remarks recognizing a few heroic figures in attendance — people like Stephen Willeford, who sprang into action amid the church massacre last year in Sutherland Springs and helped take down the gunman by opening fire on him with his own gun. 
 
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 “That’s Texas,” Cruz said after ticking through their acts of bravery. “Texas is strong, Texas is independent, Texas is fearless, Texas is free, Texas loves freedom and Texas is tough." 
 
 “We don’t sit around waiting for some other guy to fix the problem,” Cruz added. “Texans step in and git ‘er done.” 
 
 The rally at the Redneck Country Club outside Houston — a favorite haunt of Cruz loyalists — came at the end of the first day of a 12-city tour the senator is making across the state through Wednesday. He started it Monday morning in Beaumont with an event billed as specifically about Texas’ resilience following Harvey, which battered the Gulf Coast last fall. 
 
 Cruz is revving up his campaign almost a year to the day after U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-El Paso, launched his underdog effort to unseat the incumbent. O'Rourke has since proven to be a relentless campaigner and strong fundraiser, though Cruz largely ignored him until last month, when he began tearing into his challenger as ideologically out of step with the red state. 
 
 Cruz did not mention O'Rourke in his remarks to a crowd of about 100 people gathered at an airport firehouse for the Beaumont stop. Neither did he to the Redneck Country Club crowd — an audience so enthused that some members had encouraged Cruz to crowd surf after one particularly well-received applause line. 
 
 But at each place, Cruz spoke of a crystal-clear choice in November and alluded to what's quickly become his favorite area of contrast with O'Rourke — gun rights — while discussing the recent call by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to repeal the Second Amendment. 
 
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 "Now here's a dirty little secret: There are an awful lot of Democrats in Washington who long in their heart for the repeal of the Second Amendment," Cruz said in Beaumont, adding here, “They’re just not as brave or truthful or candid enough to admit it.” 
 
 Speaking with the media after his Beaumont appearance, Cruz said a "great question for enterprising reporters" to ask O'Rourke would be if he agrees with Stevens. O’Rourke has spoken favorably of Texas’ long tradition of gun ownership but argued certain commonsense steps can be taken to prevent senseless violence, such as instituting universal background checks and banning the AR-15 rifle. The latter proposal has particularly drawn the ire of Cruz, who reminded reporters Monday that his opponent has bragged about getting an "F" rating from the National Rifle Association — "an extreme position, even within Washington Democrats." 
 
 O'Rourke's campaign was not letting Cruz's statewide swing go unanswered. It posted a Snapchat filter in Beaumont that allowed users of the app in the area to layer a cartoon of a frowning Cruz atop their posts. The filter also included a jab at Cruz's White House bid, which O'Rourke has said distracted Cruz from representing Texas for much of his first term. 
 
 "Ted Cruz visited 99 of Iowa's 99 counties," the filter said. "When's the last time he listened to Texans in Beaumont?" 
 
 Cruz fired back on Twitter, contrasting the number of recent visits he has made to Beaumont with O'Rourke's apparent tally. "Maybe that’s why you lost Jefferson County in the Dem primary," Cruz said to O'Rourke, who promptly responded with a photo of him helping out in Beaumont after Harvey. 
 
 The sniping was a far cry from most of the last year, when Cruz largely declined to mix it up with his challenger. That changed as both men secured their party’s nominations in the March 6 primaries, and Cruz abruptly switched to offense, painting O’Rourke as too liberal for Texas. The strategic shift included a radio-ad jingle taunting O’Rourke, set to the tune of Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas.” 
 
 “If you’re gonna run in Texas,” the jingle goes, “you can’t be a liberal man.” 
 
 While Cruz did not mention O’Rourke on the stump Monday, the hometown rally here offered a not-so-subtle reminder. 
 
 The song Cruz walked out to? Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas.” 
 
 Read related Tribune coverage: ||||| Ted Cruz vowed Monday that he’s “in for the distance,” but if the Texas senator loses Indiana on Tuesday he risks big donors abandoning the Stop Trump effort that has spent millions supporting him in battleground states. 
 
 More than a half-dozen Republicans involved in the pro-Cruz and anti-Trump push told POLITICO that Indiana is crucial for Cruz to keeping the cash flowing, as skittish donors have grown weary after a string of recent losses. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 “If he can’t be stopped in Indiana, you will have a lot of people who just throw up their arms and say, ‘Well, I guess he can’t be stopped,’” said Erick Erickson, an influential Republican activist who has tried to organize anti-Trump forces. “I think the super donors or the megadonors — they stop spending money. They’re not going to get on board Trump, but they’re not going to continue to invest in what they perceive as a lost cause.” 
 
 After Trump rolled through the Northeast, winning every county but one in the past six states, the pressure is on Cruz — and it’s showing. Cruz has run through his entire political playbook to save Indiana. 
 
 His camp, expressing pessimism over the Texas senator's chances, is bracing for staff cuts "at a minimum" if he loses Indiana, an aide told the Associated Press on Tuesday. Cruz's campaign manager Jeff Roe, however, tweeted that the AP report is "dead wrong." 
 
 He struck a nonaggression pact with John Kasich. He bought TV ads. His supportive super PACs bought TV ads. He blitzed the Sunday shows. He barnstormed the state on a bus tour. He got the governor’s endorsement. He even named his running mate. 
 
 And if all that is not enough, it’s not clear what would be — both to anti-Trump donors and to those inside his own campaign. 
 
 “If we lose Indiana, we have to do some soul searching,” said one top Cruz adviser, adding things are looking “rough right now.” 
 
 Indeed, the most recent poll, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey conducted by the Marist Institute and released on Sunday, had Trump ahead of Cruz by 15 points, though previous surveys showed closer margins. 
 
 The loss could cost Cruz one of his last remaining advantages: Millions in ad support from groups like the Club for Growth, Our Principles PAC and the pro-Cruz Trusted Leadership PAC. 
 
 Those ads boosted him in Wisconsin — his most recent victory, but one that came almost a month ago — and they’re supporting Cruz’s bid in Indiana, but one operative inside a big-money Stop Trump group explained the current mindset of donors bluntly: “It’ll be tough for them to want to jump in on a major money effort in California when hopes are getting dim.” 
 
 “If Cruz loses Indiana, many donors will take a step back and reassess what may happen in California,” said Sean Noble, a Republican strategist with ties to some anti-Trump donors, including Randy Kendrick, who gave $100,000 to Our Principles PAC in March. 
 
 Fred Malek, finance chairman of the Republican Governors Association, said wealthy donors are simply “more hesitant to put large sums to work until they see more results.” 
 
 “I think donors are going to take a very hard look at that before they put in large money between Indiana and California,” Malek said. 
 
 Erickson’s ad hoc coalition of anti-Trump Republicans, for instance, is planning a conference call on Wednesday to discuss its next steps, including re-examining a third-party challenge. 
 
 “You’re already starting to see two tracks moving forward,” Erickson said, adding that a Trump win Tuesday would mean “much more energy going toward a third-party candidate.” 
 
 Indiana won’t be mathematically decisive for Trump. He can’t secure the 1,237 delegates he needs to lock up the nomination until California votes on June 7. But a victory could deliver a “psychological” blow — multiple GOP operatives used that same word — to his opposition amid accelerating talk among Republicans of coalescing behind Trump, who has already declared himself the “presumptive nominee.” 
 
 “The donors are seeing the same nightly news shows and, if that’s having a strong influence on their decisions, you have to overcome that narrative, which will be the challenge for Cruz,” said the operative working for an anti-Trump group. 
 
 In Indiana on Monday, Cruz declared, “I am in for the distance,” and over the weekend, he vowed at the California Republican Party convention, “We’re all in” in the Golden State. The Stop Trump movement has vowed to soldier on until Trump officially clinches. But 2016 has witnessed plenty of similarly resolute statements from fallen Trump foes, most notably Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. 
 
 At one point, Rubio declared, “I don’t care if I have to get in my pickup truck and drive around the country” to battle Trump. He dropped out only weeks later. 
 
 But whether or not Cruz wants to continue on, campaign cash could be a determining factor. 
 
 The latest financial reports from Bernie Sanders offer a stark warning of what happens to campaigns when the media and public label them electoral losers. Sanders saw his monthly haul plunge by 40 percent, from $44 million in February to $25.8 million in March. 
 
 California, with its population of 38 million, is already the most expensive state to run a campaign in the country and the rules of its primary — with each of the state’s 53 congressional districts having three delegates — mean it will likely be even harder to compete on the cheap. 
 
 “Cruz’s only path would be to capture enough congressional districts in California to hold Trump under 1,237,” Noble said. 
 
 Perhaps the biggest wild card for Cruz: The financial fate of the Stop Trump super PACs rests in the hands of so few donors. 
 
 So far, much of the anti-Trump money has come from a handful of super-rich donors, including brothers Warren and Jackson T. Stephens ($7.1 million between the Club for Growth and Our Principles PAC), Richard UIhlein ($4 million), Joe and Marlene Ricketts ($5.5 million) and Paul Singer ($1.5 million). 
 
 Those four families alone could keep the anti-Trump movement afloat if they wanted. They could almost single-handedly sink it, as well, by cutting off funds. 
 
 The last week has seen a steady drumbeat toward Trump, with House Transportation Committee Chairman Bill Shuster and Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller both endorsing the Manhattan businessman. Former House Speaker John Boehner and former Sen. Judd Gregg, meanwhile, both sounded off against Cruz, with Boehner calling him “Lucifer in the flesh.” 
 
 Trump seems to sense he is on the threshold of winning the nomination, saying Sunday in Indiana his opponents are “hanging by their fingertips.” 
 
 But if Cruz can pull off a surprise win, it will be his biggest comeback yet. And it would reshape the dynamic of the race entirely, making Trump’s path to 1,237 precarious — forcing him to essentially sweep California — and ensuring all of Cruz’s efforts to lock up supporters in the shadow war for delegates would matter. 
 
 Cruz himself has done little to downplay Indiana’s pivotal role. As he wrote in a fundraising email to supporters last week: “This is the single, biggest, most important day for our campaign so far.”
– With two weeks to go until the midterm elections, passions—and voter turnout—are running high in Texas. In Houston early Monday, thousands of people lined up at a voting location hours before early voting began, the Houston Chronicle reports. Authorities say early voting turnout has been much higher than in 2014 across the state's biggest counties. Renée Cross, senior director for the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, tells the Texas Tribune that the numbers are "very impressive." "We see so much anger or enthusiasm about candidates in much higher numbers than we’ve ever seen," she says. "From a political standpoint, I think there’s just as much energy that we’ve seen in presidential years." In other election news: Trump praises "Beautiful Ted." President Trump appeared at a Houston rally for Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday, where both men made it clear the bitterness of the 2016 campaign was behind them. Before he flew to Texas, Trump told reporters that he now called Cruz "Beautiful Ted" or "Texas Ted" instead of "Lyin' Ted," reports the Washington Post. At the rally, the two men embraced and Cruz told the crowd that he is looking forward to hitting the campaign trail for Trump's re-election bid in 2020. Trump described Cruz's opponent, Beto O'Rourke, as "overrated." "You know what I am? I'm a nationalist." At the Cruz rally, Trump attacked Democrats as a "big risk to the American family" and accused them of "encouraging millions of illegal aliens to break our laws, violate our borders, and overwhelm our nation," the AP reports. He also attacked globalists, declaring himself to be a nationalist. GOP may have the edge in early voting. According to data analyzed by NBC News, talk of a "blue wave" may be overstated: In early voting, Republican-affiliated voters have outnumbered Democrats in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Montana, Tennessee, and Texas, while Democrats are ahead in Nevada. Trump "plans to distance himself from GOP losses." Insiders tell Politico that while Trump is currently describing the midterm vote as a vote on his presidency, he plans to break with recent precedent and distance himself from the results if there are serious GOP losses. The sources say Trump is likely to blame losses on House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—as well as the media. One GOP insider says Trump has said of McConnell and Ryan: "These are their elections ... and if they screw it up, it's not my fault." Dems lower "blue wave" expectations. Trump may not have to distance himself from results: With congressional races tightening, Democrats have been trying to lower expectations of a "blue wave," the Hill reports. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez says he believes this year's races will be close and control of the House could rest on just a few votes. (These are the most, and least, political states.)