October 16, 2018

Watch Beto O’Rourke Debate Ted Cruz for Possibly the Final Time Before the Midterms

O’Rourke, who has been slipping in the polls, needs to perform well tonight.

Beto O'Rourke and Ted Cruz

Nathan Hunsinger/Dallas Morning News/Associated Press

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Trailing in the polls with three weeks before election day, Texas Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke has his work cut out for him in his bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. If he wants to close the gap—the Real Clear Politics polling average has the congressman from El Paso down by seven points—he’ll have to take advantage of moments like tonight’s, at the candidates’ second and (tentatively) final debate in San Antonio.

You can watch the debate starting at 9 p.m. EST on the live-stream below:


For more on O’Rourke’s moonshot campaign, check out my profile from the magazine last summer.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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