On Friday night, Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will meet in Dallas for the first of three head-to-head debates in the Texas Senate race. As I noted in a profile of O’Rourke last year, although Texas hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in more than two decades, O’Rourke has made a race of it, in part thanks to an unorthodox style of campaigning and the lingering unpopularity of President Donald Trump.