WINNIN' TED
Ted Cruz projected to beat Beto O’Rourke as Republican fights off ‘blue wave’ with rural vote
The southern battleground has been a Republican stronghold - and looks set to stay with the incumbent Cruz
INCUMBENT Republican Ted Cruz will beat Democrat Beto O'Rourke in the Texas senate race, it has been projected.
US broadcasters have ruled Texas a safe win for Cruz after a tense race with the Democrat snapping on the Republican's heels.
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Both ABC and CBS have projected a win for Cruz, as he held onto the conservative Texan areas.
In a speech celebrating his win from Houston, Cruz lauded Texans for turning out "to defend Texas" and a "common sense agenda".
He said: "Tonight is a victory for all the men and women across this state that poured your hearts, your passion, your energy to rising to defend Texas.
Texas saw something this year that we've never seen before, this election wasn't about me or Beto O'Rourke, this election was a battle of ideas a contest for who we are and what we believe. The people of Texas decided this race."
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He claimed at pre-election rallies across the state, "former Democrats" would turnout for the Republican candidate.
"At these events, we would ask: 'How many of you are former democrats?' and we would see hands throughout the room as we're seeing hands now because Texas came together behind a common sense agenda... Securing the border and keeping our community safe, and defending our constitution and the bill of rights. And that is a common sense agenda that unites Texans from every part of the state, it was your hard work."
The southern battleground has been a Republican stronghold, apart from Democrat President Jimmy Carter's marginal win in the state over Republican candidate Gerald Ford in 1976.
Early exit polls showed that O'Rourke leading Cruz by 50-48 per cent in a huge early lead.
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But steadfast Cruz fought back with his key stronghold areas across rural Texas as well as the Conservative Fort Worth, pitting the pair neck and neck and jostling between 49 to 50 per cent.
O'Rourke is currently pulling weight across the more liberal Texan cities such as Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.
Beto O’Rourke is a U.S. representative for Texas’ 16th District, which includes most of El Paso County, first elected in 2012.
Ted Cruz was first elected in 2012, and also made a bid to be the Republican candidate for Presidential nomination in 2016, eventually losing out to Trump.
read more on the US midterms
Since the general elections of 2014, the majority of the members of Texas's US House of Representatives delegation are Republican, along with both US Senators.
In the 114th United States Congress, of the 36 Congressional districts in Texas, 24 are held by Republicans and 11 by Democrats.
Since 1994, Texans have not elected a Democrat to a statewide office.
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