Newsweek reports that on Friday, during an interview with PBS’ Firing Line with Margaret Hoover , Sen. Ted Cruz was pressed by Hoover about whether he believes President Donald Trump could be defeated during the 2020 election.
“Absolutely,” he said. “I personally handicap the 2020 election as a coin flip; I think it’s about 50-50.”
“I want to see the president reelected, I’m working hard to help the president get reelected and think he certainly can get reelected. But I think we are gonna see staggering Democratic turnout in 2020.”
Cruz pointed to his narrow win over Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the 2018 Texas senate race. The red state has helped Republican nominees win by at least ten points since 1993, but in Cruz’s case, he only won by three percentage points. According to Cruz, this outcome in Texas will mirror the United States as a whole in 2020.
“And the reason is, look, anger is a powerful motivator, and the far left is pissed,” he said. “They are enraged by Donald Trump, and it means they’re gonna show up, and the big open question is — Does everybody else show up?”
When Hoover pressed Cruz on which Democratic candidate is most likely to become the nominee, Cruz said that former Vice President Joe Biden likely won’t because of his centrism. He claims that the “energy” and “passion” of the party is on the far left and said that, because of this, the nominee will instead be someone further to the left. Cruz believes that Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Kamala Harris are the most likely to take the nomination.
Ted Cruz says Trump could “absolutely” lose 2020 election, predicts “staggering Democratic turnout” https://t.co/wDc3bLo22S
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) July 20, 2019
Per The Inquisitr , Cruz isn’t the only Texan worried about Trump’s chances in 2020. Newsweek reports that the state’s Grand Old Party (GOP) recently sent emails to voters urging them to vote for Trump. The email suggested that a failure to support Trump will lead to a high chance of him losing, and claimed that Democrats want open borders and “socialist policies and systems.”
Demographics in Texas have reportedly been changing. For example, there has been an increase in the Hispanic and black population, as well as a surge in the state’s young, urban community. Since all of these groups tend to lean Democratic, some experts suggest that Texas will continue to shift from a predominately Republican state to a Democratic one. Many often point to the increased success of Democratic nominees in Texas in recent years, with Barack Obama losing by 16 points in 2012 up until 2016, when Hilary Clinton lost by just nine.