What they want to hear from me, and rightly so, is what are you going to do?�? Cruz is expected to bring back several key figures of his 2016 presidential campaign, a combative team known for its no-holds-barred approach. “I know it’s part of how you’re supposed to run campaigns, but I just don’t get fired up being against something or somebody,�? But O’Rourke does. “Having a junior senator who has been focused for the last four years on running for president has left Texas ill-served, unrepresented, and not achieving what we can in the Senate,�? But he pointed to his last major race, when he upset longtime Democratic Rep. Silvestre Reyes in a 2012 primary. “I was running against 100-to-1 odds,” O’Rourke said. “You don’t know until you do it.” 
 
 O’Rourke and Cruz have some similarities: They both believe in term limits and have annoyed their party leaders, though O’Rourke has done so in far less strident ways than Cruz. Unlike O’Rourke, who has said he will serve only until 2020 in the House, Castro hasn't promised an end-date there.
– Texas hasn't elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 30 years, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Beto O'Rourke wants to end that drought—by taking down Sen. Ted Cruz. The US representative from El Paso officially entered the race against the former presidential candidate Friday. O'Rourke isn't well known outside West Texas, but that's probably about to change. Politico describes him as a "44-year-old former hard rock musician and internet entrepreneur." O'Rourke used to play guitar for a punk rock band that included a future member of Grammy-winning band The Mars Volta, the Dallas Morning News reports. O'Rourke also wrote a book advocating for the legalization of marijuana and is described as "free-spirited." Democrats pretty much need O'Rourke to unseat Cruz to have any hope of taking control of the Senate in 2018. And that's a whole lot easier said than done. Texas' other GOP senator, John Cornyn, says O'Rourke is on a "suicide mission." And Texas' GOP spokesperson summed up his feelings in one word: "Who?" But O'Rourke isn't discouraged. "I’m under no illusions this will be anything but hard," he tells the Morning News. "Nothing I’ve ever done that’s amounted to anything has been easy." O'Rourke plans to win by doing what he's already been doing: traveling around, especially to Republican strongholds, and listening to voters. He tells the American-Statesman he wants to "learn from people ... everywhere because everyone deserves something better."