By
Erick Erickson
It is hard to overstate just how extraordinary Ted Cruzs underdog entry into the Texas runoff is and just how the odds are still stacked against him unless conservatives rally quickly with lots of money.
David Dewhurst has been Lt. Governor of Texas for more than a decade. He has massive name ID throughout the state. Ted Cruz started this race with a three or four percent showing in polling.
More so Dewhurst is a multimillionaire who can write large sums of money to fund his campaign.
Ted Cruz cannot. Texas has several of the most expensive media markets in the country and the state is too large to go door to door across the state.
Dewhursts political team is Governor Rick Perrys highly successful (in Texas) political team. I know a number of them and consider them friends. They are formidable.
To the chagrin of Texas tea party activists Governor Perry himself is backing Lt. Governor Dewhurst publicly.
All the stars aligned for David Dewhurst a deep well of money to draw from high existing name id statewide incumbency support from the Governor and his winning political team. Still the tea party rallied behind Ted Cruz and got him into a runoff.
Now the variables are largely the same.
Ted Cruz must raise a ton of cash quickly to compete. He has eight weeks. Media will be ridiculously expensive. He will have some of the biggest guns in Texas firing in his direction.
One thing Ted Cruz has that David Dewhurst does not is the backing of the conservative movement and tea party activists.
Erick Erickson is Editor-in-Chief of RedState.com the largest right of center blogging community on the internet & is also the most widely read right of center blog on Capitol Hill.
