Roger Ancona

 JOUR 4250

 November 8th, 2018

 Senator Ted Cruz has defeated Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke for a seat in the Senate in Texas.  On a personal level, this is the first time I ever voted for a mid-term election and as election night went on I felt as though my vote really mattered, however O'Rourke eventually fell victim to many of the small counties across Texas that voted red.  One of the most telling things about the election was the difference in advertisements between the two candidates.  This time of the year basically floods televisions across the countries with a pointless amount of political advertisements and this midterm season was no different.  O'Rourke went out of his way to create advertisements that were positive and spoke only about what he would accomplish for Texans and human beings in general.  Ted Cruz created advertisements that fear-mongered Hispanic people to the white majority of Texas voters and gave me hints of the Willie Horton advertisements that George HW Bush ran in order to defeat Michael Dukakis in the late 80's.  The power that these advertisements have in elections is palpable as the documentary "13th" that we watched in class shows how these negative advertisements can scare people to the polls.  It was an unfortunate turn of events to see Cruz eventually come out with the win, however it was inspiring to see how a dedicated man of good morals could make a state like Texas a race worth watching.  Although it is unsure what O'Rourke will do next, I truly believe he inspired a lot of people, including myself, into knowing the power that their votes hold.

SOURCE:  https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/06/us/ted-cruz-wins-texas-senate-race.html

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