'Beto O’Rourke is the toughest candidate I ever prepped against and one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen,' writes former Ted Cruz adviser | Opinion
I helped prepare Senator Ted Cruz for his 2018 debates, and here’s what I learned: Beto O’Rourke is the toughest candidate I ever prepped against and one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen. The media might not recognize his skills, but voters do — and will in 2020. In fact, being underestimated may be one of his biggest advantages.
How do I know? I spent lots of time studying Beto. I began by going to the game film. And my goodness, is there a lot. He livestreamed his life the way high school girls livestream theirs. Beto drinking coffee. Beto bowling. Beto eating a hamburger. Beto riding a skateboard. Even Beto doing his laundry. But what most interested me were the livestreamed town halls.
Democrats dismissed President Reagan’s star quality, and Republicans dismissed President Obama’s. Critics miss the point about star power. In politics, it’s a big deal. It can’t be taught. Or bought. You either have it. Or you don’t. Beto had it. Beto was not an angry candidate. He was the opposite. I might even say he was a joyful candidate, and in this age of anger and resentment, this made Beto different.
Beto had advantages that critics thought were problems. He didn’t have a speechwriter, didn’t have any outside consultants, and he didn’t rely on big data. That made him dangerous. And difficult to prepare against in battle. The candidate did a lot of the driving himself, with aides in tow. He often spoke about how his never-ending tour of Texas felt a lot like his days managing his own punk band — called Foss — that he’d assembled in El Paso. He and his bandmates started a record label and booked tours, traveling the country and parts of Canada during his summers off from Columbia University, where he majored in English and captained the crew team.
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