U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, will hold a campaign event in Edinburg on April 3, according to his campaign schedule.
The event will feature Cruz alongside members of the National Border Patrol Council where they’ll focus on border security, according to the schedule. The NBPC has historically not endorsed candidates, but did so in 2016 when the organization endorsed then-candidate Donald Trump for president.
Cruz’s stop in Edinburg is part of a three-day campaign tour across the state, where he’ll hold events in 12 cities. The Edinburg event is his only Valley event over that stretch.
The trip marks Cruz’s first Rio Grande Valley campaign visit during this election cycle. Cruz recently won the Republican primary earlier this month where he received 1.3 million votes (85 percent). His Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, won the Democratic primary where he secured 641,000 votes (62 percent).
Cruz’s last Valley appearance came when he accompanied Vice President Mike Pence to McAllen in February for a border tour.
O’Rourke has campaigned twice in the Valley in 2018, when he held events in San Benito, Weslaco, Mission and McAllen in January and Edinburg and Brownsville in February.
Cruz is hoping to improve on his 2012 general election numbers, where he earned 31 percent of the vote in Hidalgo County.
“We are working to earn the votes of every Texan,” Cruz said March 7 just before the primary polls closed. “In 2012, I was gratified to earn 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in Texas. I will note that 40 percent voted for me in Texas in 2012 while I was campaigning unequivocally against amnesty protections.”
O’Rourke, meanwhile, is looking to improve on his primary numbers in the Valley. He received just 50 percent of the Democratic primary vote in Hidalgo County, and only 47 percent in Cameron County. He lost Starr County. “Going to keep showing up and listening to people,” O’Rourke said of his campaign plans on that same March 7 primary night.
