Texas U.S. Senate 2018 Results: Ted Cruz, Beto O'Rourke Win

HOUSTON, TX — Ted cruised to victory while Beto roared and showed he's ready for a showdown. Texas Republican U.S.Senate incumbent Ted Cruz will face Democrat challenger Beto O'Rourke after both won their respective party's primary ballot Tuesday night.

The headliner on the Texas ballot was the race for the United States Senate seat held by incumbent Ted Cruz, the junior senator winding down his first term. Cruz had four opponents in the Republican Primary.

Cruz had more than 80 percent of the popular vote while O'Rourke garnered about 60 percent. Cruz already directed his momentum toward November and the pending showdown.

“Tonight’s election marks the beginning of the general election in November, and the voters of Texas will have a clear and stark choice for the United States Senate,” Cruz said. “Congressman O’Rourke is a left wing, liberal Democrat. He is running like Bernie Sanders across the state.”

Cruz went on to tell reporters that O'Rourke's support was brought on by many who oppose President Donald Trump.

“We will see, as a result, very large turnout from the far left in November, just as we have seen very high Democratic turnout in the early vote,” he said. “But the good news is there are more conservatives than there are liberals in Texas, and if conservatives show up and vote. Texas will remain reliably red.”

Meanwhile, O'Rourke deflected any such left wing remarks, and that his campaign wasn't fueled by anti-Trump hate.

“Come to any town hall meeting we’re having,” he said. “There’s very little rage. There’s almost no mention of Trump, or Cruz, for that matter. It’s about the things we want to do.”

Here are the Harris County races per party:

• Democrat results
• Republican results

The five Republican candidates for U.S. Senator in Texas are (as listed on the ballot):

• Geraldine Sam
• Ted Cruz
• Stefano de Stefano
• Mary Miller
• Brice Jacobson Jr.

The three Democrat candidates for U.S. Senator in Texas are (as listed on the ballot):

• Beto O'Rourke
• Sema Hernandez
• Edward Kimbrough

O'Rourke has raised the most campaign dollars so far of all eight candidates, and he's widely considered the frontrunner to flip the seat from red to blue this fall, which would most likely be one of the biggest upsets this mid-term cycle if that happened.

Cruz didn’t waste any time starting his campaign against O’Rourke. The senator released a 60-second statewide radio ad “introducing our liberal opponent,” Cruz tweeted Tuesday night.

The ad included a country song with these lyrics: “Beto wants those open borders, and he wants to take our guns. Not a chance on earth he gets the vote of millions of Texans.”

O'Rourke tweeted Tuesday night: "We’re going to do this the right way — taking our direction from the people of Texas, from every walk of life, to do the important, ambitious work that the country is waiting for."

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Top image: Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) speaks about the future of NAFTA at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on October 31, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)