What happened?

We learned on Tuesday that Senator Cruz is up 9 in the latest poll.  It shows Mr. Cruz at 44% with Hispanics, winning big with men and losing women to Mr. O'Rourke.

The early reaction is that Mr. O'Rourke's NFL remarks and idiotic comments about AR-15s may finally be catching up with him.  On Friday, the two men will meet for a TV debate, and we will watch it.

Down in South Texas, the GOP flipped a state Senate seat held by Democrats for 139 years.  This is a rather remarkable story:

Republican Pete Flores defeated Democrat Pete Gallego on Tuesday night in the special election runoff for Senate District 19, a major upset in a Democratic-friendly seat with implications for the balance of power in the upper chamber.

With all precincts reporting, Flores beat Gallego by 6 percentage points in the race to replace convicted former state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio.  Flores had 53 percent of the vote and Gallego 47 percent in unofficial returns.

Gallego conceded to Flores around 9 p.m., according to both campaigns.  With the victory, Flores will become the first Hispanic Republican to serve in the Texas Senate.

Naturally, the reporting of this election will be local.  I am not expecting most of the country to hear about it.  Nevertheless, Pete Flores has won a big victory.

First, these are strong blue districts, usually won by Texas Hispanic Democrats.  We should add that the special election was caused by the resignation of an incumbent with legal troubles.

Yes, I understand that it was a special election, but Flores won by 6 points.  It was not close!

Second, what happened to the blue wave and all of those Democrats who can't wait to vote?  We didn't see a blue wave here!

No matter what, it was a good Tuesday for the GOP in Texas.

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