Deep in the heart of Texas, a billboard truck will soon hit the road with a curated list of President Trump's tweets — attacks on Sen. Ted Cruz, a former political foe. 
 
 Trump popularized the term “Lyin' Ted” in 2016. 
 
 But it's 2018 now, and Democratic voter mobilization and an unlikely challenger have mounted an improbable campaign for a reliably Republican seat. 
 
 Trump said an October rally is in the works to lend Cruz support. “I'm picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find,” Trump said Friday on Twitter. 
 
 "Help from the president was long unthinkable in a race that for months looked like a Cruz cakewalk,” the Associated Press reported. 
 
 Antonio Arellano, a Houston-based activist and Latino community organizer, thought fellow Texans may need a reminder of how Trump has suggested they vote when Cruz is on the ballot. 
 
 He was already in the market for a billboard when he tweeted a doctored image carrying a real Trump tweet from 2016. 
 
 "Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them. He is another all talk, no action pol!” the tweet read. 
 
 On the market for a billboard, outside the biggest stadium in Texas we can find. #TxSen pic.twitter.com/VDSR5pzSzH — Antonio (@AntonioArellano) September 1, 2018 
 
 His project became more possible, Arellano said Sunday, with each retweet and suggestion that it could be fully realized. 
 
 "My followers were saying, 'Where can I donate? Let’s make this happen,' " he told The Washington Post. 
 
 He started a GoFundMe page to fuel the effort, and donations soared. Arellano was subsequently joined by David Hogg, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., who got involved after catching wind of the image on Twitter. Political activist Claude Taylor also joined the effort, and their $6,000 goal was met and surpassed within a day, Arellano said. 
 
 The group raised $9,760, then turned away further donations, he said. He hopes to have the truck on the road in the next two weeks. 
 
 Arellano said the actual billboard will be a mobile truck with two sides, and could carry two different tweets at once, one on each side. The route has not yet been planned, but Arellano said he is exploring where in the state he should dispatch it with the hashtag #TrumpTweetTruck. 
 
 The Cruz campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 
 
 The billboard seeks in part to highlight the contentious history between Cruz and Trump at a moment when they need each other, although Arellano said it mostly criticizes Cruz for not challenging Trump's hard-line immigration policies that have affected Latinos in Texas. Cruz's father is a Cuban immigrant. 
 
 Trump is supporting Cruz in a tighter-than-expected race to keep a Republican majority in the Senate. Cruz seeks to fend off Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who is riding a wave of national coverage. 
 
 [Beto O’Rourke: A revolt against Trump and a demand for compassion in Texas Senate race] 
 
 Although he would be the most serious Democratic contender to unseat a Republican in years, O'Rourke's path to victory would be difficult in the comfortably conservative state. 
 
 Still, a recent NBC News-Marist College poll found O’Rourke trailing Cruz by just four percentage points in a state Trump won by nine, The Post's Jenna Johnson reported. 
 
 There are more than a few tweets the truck could highlight. Trump has tweeted he doubts Cruz's Christian bona fides and attacked the physical appearance of Cruz's wife. In response, Cruz called Trump a “sniveling coward." 
 
 “It’s not easy to tick me off. I don’t get angry often. But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that’ll do it every time,” Cruz said. “Leave Heidi the hell alone.” 
 
 But Cruz now welcomes Trump's support as O'Rourke draws in potential voters with a message of unity and compassion in a vitriolic political world, and will often avoid naming Cruz and Trump directly. 
 
 Trump has trained his Twitter salvo on O'Rourke, calling him a “disaster for Texas” on Friday. 
 
 That is surely a relief for Cruz. The truck may not have new material. But the election is still two months away. 
 
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 ‘We Negroes’ robocall is an attempt to ‘weaponize race’ in Florida campaign, Gillum warns ||||| 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. 
 
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 “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.”
– There's been a lot of water under the bridge since Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were battling it out for the Republican nomination—but David Hogg is among those trying to make sure people remember the clash. The Parkland school shooting survivor has helped activists in Texas raise thousands of dollars for a mobile billboard reminding Texans of some of Trump's anti-Cruz tweets from 2016, reports USA Today. "Why would the people of Texas support Ted Cruz when he has accomplished absolutely nothing for them. He is another all talk, no action pol!" reads one tweet from Trump, who nicknamed the senator "Lyin' Ted." A GoFundMe fundraiser for the billboard was started by activist Antonio Arellano after Trump promised to support Cruz against Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke, the Washington Post reports. "I'm picking the biggest stadium in Texas we can find" for a pro-Cruz rally in October, Trump tweeted Friday, giving his former rival his "full and total Endorsement." Arellano says the fundraiser quickly surpassed its $6,000 goal and they stopped accepting donations when it hit $9,760. The activists hope to have the billboard on the road within two weeks. (O'Rourke's days in a '90s punk band have helped raise his profile in the surprisingly competitive race.)