he was running against lieutenant governor david dewhurst from the right. ahead of tonight's results, an unnamed republican consultant describes as nationally known, that consultant told the texas monthly, quote, if ted cruz wins the senate race, texas will be a purple state in four years. that's a republican saying that about his own party's overreach. democrats have been saying texas is heading purple already, including president obama saying it this month in san antonio. >> you're not considering one of tl battleground states, although, that's going to be changing soon. >> texas? texas. the run-off tonight in texas followed weeks of campaigning, frankly, by folks who are not from texas. sarah palin and jim demint and grover norquist's folks for growth trying to get ted cruz the nomination. since the winner of the republican primary, at least for now, is a lock to win the seat in november, texas democrats pretty much ignored their own senate primary. you kind of have to in the texas of today. but the texas of tomorrow, frankly, texas democrats have their

i'm david dewhurst and i approve this message. let's shut it down. >> jennifer: was it a bad move to try to out-conservative the tea party candidate? >> yes, it was a bad enough. and one thing in the dewhurst campaign they never understood what the electorate board looked like. this was not a fight between two candidates who differed on specificish issues. they're both against obama-care, they're both for cutting government, so on and so forth. what happened here no matter what david dewhurst said, he looked patrician. he looked like an incumbent. he looked too associated with government. this tea party rising in texas and i suspect in other parts of the country is really not about candidates who differ on a specificish issue but a desire by a disgruntled electorate to send somebody to washington, in this case ted cruz, who fit the bill. he was a street fighter. he was conservative, but he was also ready to burn the place down. that's what they wanted, and ted cruz fit the bill. >> jennifer: on the flip side of that, i've got 30 s

and of course yesterday's loss by david dewhurst in texas. and then there were two who went running for the tea party before they suffered losses from tea party primary challengers. longtime pennsylvania senator arlen specter who went to the democratic party. and florida governor charlie crist who turned independent. well, there you have it. i want to start with john hileman. you talk about a game change. i'm watching people with the language of save our republic. you know, the language almost sounds like seven days in may, like a military coup. this is different than just conservative. >> yes. i like that sound effect, the dropping in the water thing. you think about the irony. if you had said four or five years ago, even two years ago that the endorsed blessed candidate of rick perry the governor of texas who is as right as you can imagine in american politics would be dismissed -- >> outflanked on the right. >> -- as too liberal by a gop electorate primary, people would have thought you were crazy. if you have a candidate who's not actuall

and of course yesterday's loss jed by david dewhurst in texas. and then there were two who went running for the tea party before they suffered losses from challengers. longtime pennsylvania senator arlen specter who went to the democratic party. and charlie crist who turned independent. there you have it. i want to start with john hileman. you talk about a game change. i'm watching people with the language of save our republic. the language almost sounds like seven days in may. like a military coo. this is different than just conservative. >> yes. i like that sound effect, the dropping in the water thing. you think about the irony. if you had said four or five years ago, even two years ago that the endorsed blessed candidate of rick perry the governor of texas who is as right as you can imagine in american politics would be dismissed -- >> out flanked on the right. >> too liberal by a primary -- gop electorate primary, people would have thought you were crazy. if you have a candidate who's not actually certifiable and as long as they have a littl

he was running against lieutenant governor david dewhurst from the right. ahead of tonight's results, an unnamed republican consultant describes as nationally known, that consultant told the texas monthly, quote, if ted cruz wins the senate race, texas will be a purple state in four years. that's a republican saying that about his own party's overreach. democrats have been saying texas is heading purple already, including president obama saying it this month in san antonio. >> you're not considering one of the battle ground states although that's going to be changing soon. >> texas? texas. the run-off tonight in texas followed weeks of campaigning, frankly, by folks who are not from texas. sarah palin and jim demint and grover norquist's folks for growth trying to get ted cruz the nomination. since the winner of the republican promary at least for now is a lock to win the seat in november, texas democrats pretty much ignored their own senate primary. you kind of have to in the texas of today. but the texas of tomorrow, frankly, texas democrats have their ey

how does he explain his win over david dewhurst the incumbent lieutenant governor a wealthy businessman who spent $19 million of his own money on there race? >> look, everyone who has a vested interest in the status quo, in business as usual in spending and spending and spending wants to stop anyone who wants to stop that gravy train. but i think the american people are looking for leaders that aren't going to washington, to suddenly be popular at the cocktail parties. they are looking for leaders to go to washington and to be public servants. >> this november, paul sadler, being vacated by the outgoing o republican senator kay bailey hutchison. >>> question. what does ted cruz's victory say about the tea party movement and its influence on the republican party? rich lowry? >> john it says the most important and powerful force in the republican party right now is the tea party combined with a genuinely impressive candidate. we had the tea party victory in the indictment indict senate race awhile ago but that was almost entirely lay a rejection of the incumbent rather than an endorsement

he defeated david dewhurst who has been the lieutenant governor of texas for almost a decade who outspent ted cruz by 2-1 works put $11 million of his own money in the case. gwen: who was endorsed by governor rick perry. >> there's a lot going on in this race. there was the tea party support but there is also a lot of this kind of outside money that we have seen come in since the citizens united decision specifically an anti-pact organization which is not an anti-establishment organization put in $5.5 million which really helped to level the playing field a little bit. ted cruz also benefited from the fact that this election date was delayed not once but between thanks to court action over redistricting. and finally i think a lot of people in the state understand but people outside didn't, there was some kind of a family feud in texas which could be described the old bush organization and the organization of rick perry. and this was really the revenge of the bush. ted cruz had been part of the bush administration. he never ran for office. but he did have a lot of support from people who w

he was running against lieutenant governor david dewhurst from the right. ahead of tonight's results, an unnamed republican consultant describes as nationally known, that consultant told the texas monthly, quote, if ted cruz wins the senate race, texas will be a purple state in four years. that's a republican saying that about his own party's overreach. democrats have been saying texas is heading purple already, including president obama saying it this month in san antonio. >> you're not considering one of the battle ground states although that's going to be changing soon. >> texas? texas. the run-off tonight in texas followed weeks of campaigning, frankly, by folks who are not from texas. sarah palin and jim demint and grover norquist's folks for growth trying to get ted cruz the nomination. since the winner of the republican primary, at least for now, is a lock to win the seat in november, texas democrats pretty much ignored their own senate primary. you kind of have to in the texas of today. but the texas of tomorrow, frankly, texas democrats have their

ted cruz is thanking treat party supporters for a convincing defeat of lieutenant government david dewhurst. he's going to face democratic representative paul sadler who begin as as an underdog in one of america's reddest states. >> congressional leaders have reached a deal to keep the federal government running through march of 2013. they worked out the agreement to avoid a possible government shutdown before the election. it would extend funding for federal agencies for six months. the agreement would also make it a bit easier to great postelection deal to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff of expiring tax cuts and automatic spending cuts. the compromised deal would have to be approved in september by both houses of congress. >> now to the london summer games and u.s. swimmer michael phelps. he swam his way into the history books tuesday by winning his 19th career olympic medal. phelps picked up his 15th gold medal in the 4x200 meter free style relay after taking silver in the 200 meter butterfly by 0 .05. >> i saw the women's gymnastics, the u.s. got their gold. those fab five will be well

he had once been considered a long-shot candidate, but surged in the polls to be out david dewhurst who had won the backing of texas governor rick perry. dewhurst was considered conservative and cruz, the tea party candidate. the significance of this? >> the tea party remains organized. it has an advantage in that it is funded. the tea party is a powerful force that cannot be denied. >> and your plans, congressman kucinich? you will be leaving congress. what do you plan to do next? >> it is a range of things. accelerating for the finish line and doing everything i can to use the available time to keep championing the concerns of the american people. i have already established an organization called kucinich action, which will hold our political activity as a constant factor in helping people organized at all levels, but to keep our focus also trained on matters of war and peace, jobs, on the environment print kucinich isp's action.com will be part of my political activity. -- kucinichaction.com will be part of my political activity. i will try to work with others to try to save the post

dewhurst, by 13 points. he did it with the backing of such tea party favorites as sarah palin and rick santorum, and with a fiery brand of conservative populism. >> tonight is a victory for the grassroots... ( long cheer ) it is a testament to republican women, to tea party leaders and to grassroots conservatives. ( cheers ) >> woodruff: dewhurst had been the republican establishment favorite with the backing of texas governor rick perry and other party leaders. he finished first in the may primary, but failed to avoid a runoff, and then faded badly. >> i just got off the phone with ted cruz and i offered him my congratulations and his supporters on a hard-fought victory and my support. >> woodruff: the 41-year-old cruz is making his first bid for elected office. he's a one-time ivy league debating champion, whose father left cuba during the castro revolution. now, the son has scored the latest in a string of tea party triumphs in u.s. senate primaries this year. in indiana, longtime senator richard lugar lo

ted cruz easily defeated david dewhurst. cruz has never held elected office and becoming the overwhelming favorite in the general election. united airlines flight was diverted to boston last night after an unclaimed camera was found by a flight attendant. flight 956 departed from newark, new jersey with 157 passengers and 11 crew mm bers. it turns out it belonged to a passenger on a previous flight. the 767 escorted by two f-15 fighters. one had an emergency of its own and had to return to its base. another united flight landed safely in denver after it was hit by a convertible. the 727 was about 125 miles whe it hit the bird. you can see the large dent and hole in the plane's nose. >>> the justice department says republican report on the botched gun tracking operation is fast and furious is the story. reports that the obama administration changed strategy to fight a drug cartel. the justice department says those tactics date back to 2006. overseas now the battle for syria's largest largest escalad government forszs. charlie

. >> reporter: cruz pulled off a come-from-behind upset defeat, texas lieutenant governor david dewhurst. by most any standard, dewhurst is considered a very crrvative republican, and was endorsed we texas governor rick perry. cruz spent months tacking even further to the right, chatting up prayer groups, party meetings, tapping into frustrations about washington spending. >> i will never support new taxes, period, the end. >> reporter: a lot of republicans would say they think things have gotten worse with the tea party members there, that that's really put a stop or a halt to a lot of things. >> well, i think there are a lot of things that needed to stop, that needed to halt. our $16 trillion debt was a bipartisan problem. a whole lot of republicans went arm and arm with the democrats in agreeing to that spending. >> reporter: do you feel like a lot of people out there are out to get the tea party? >> oh, sure. look, everyone who has a vested interest in the status quo, in business as usual, in spending and spending and spending wants to stop anyone who wants to stop that gravy train.

a big win in texas for the tea party candidate, ted cruz defeating david dewhurst in a bit of a shocker. we will have the details coming up on this august 1st show. plus dick cheney says sarah palin was a mistake. sarah palin responds. we will hear her response in just a few moments. also today, it's chick-fil-a appreciation day as decreed by america's number 1 craig: mike huckabee. should you go to chick-fil-a? we will talk about that in a few moments. here is your current news update with lisa ferguson. lisa, good morning. >> good morning, peter. good to see you in the hot seat. as he just mentioned, the tea party is getting stronger in texas as yesterday's big battle for the republican senate no, ma'am nuptial. it was a closely watched run-off vote with dueewhurst as the establishment favorite but newcomer ted cruz pulled off the upset winning 5530 to 45%. >> we were at 2% in the polls. and they said i couldn't do it. and you know what? they were right. i couldn't do it. but you could. >> a big show of grassroots support helped a win with more than 1 million texans showing up to the

. >> reporter: cruz pulled off a come-from-behind upset defeat, texas lieutenant governor david dewhurst. by most any standard, dewhurst is considered a very crrvative republican, and was endorsed we texas governor rick perry. cruz spent months tacking even further to the right, chatting up prayer groups, party meetings, tapping into frustrations about washington spending. >> i will never support new taxes, period, the end. >> reporter: a lot of republicans would say they think things have knotten worse with the tea party members there, that that's really put a stop or a halt to a lot of things. >> well, i think there are a lot of things that needed to stop, that needed to halt. our $16 trillion debt was a bipartisan problem. a whole lot of republicans went arm and arm with the democrats in agreeing to that spending. >> reporter: do you feel like a lot of people out there are out to get the tea party? >> oh, sure. look, everyone who has a vested interest in the status quo, in business as usual, in spending and spending and spending wants to stop anyone who wants to stop that gravy train.

. >>> in other political battlegrounds, ted cruz easily defeated lieutenant governor david dewhurst for u.s. senate in texas. more than 1 million voters cast ballots, a significant turnout for a july election. dewhurst was unable to pull out a victory despite the backing of the majority of the state's republican establishment including governor rick perry. dewhurst spent nearly $20 million of his own fortune on the campaign. still he couldn't contain the momentum of ted cruz who forced the runoff back in may when the lieutenant governor failed to break the 50% threshold to guarantee outright victory. cruz tapped into donations from groups outside of texas and won the backing of favorites like sarah palin and senator jim demint of south carolina. he's now the favorite to win the u.s. senate seat this november. >>> republican congressman steve latourette of ohio is blaming the political climate in washington for his decision not to seek a tenth term in congress. his decision comes less than 100 days before voters head to the polls. his more moderate positions often clash with the party li

cruz defeated fellow republican david dewhurst. he's been lieutenant governor to rick perry for nearly a decade. >>> republican presidential candidate mitt romney is back in the united states after his trip to europe and the middle east. that trip is getting some mixed reviews. some say it was overshadowed by romney's gaffe on london's ability to hold the olympics. and his aide's off-color remarks to reporters in poland. but a romney adviser calls the trip a, quote, great success. >>> if you want to be the first to know who mitt romney picks as his running mate, guess what, there's an app for that. the campaign unveiling a smartphone app called mitt's vp. joining me now is cnn political director mark preston. good morning, mark. >> hey, carol. i remember getting that text at about 4:00 in the morning when the obama campaign had announced that it was joe biden that they had selected. the problem with that was is that john king had broken the story about three hours earlier. so now we see the romney campaign with this app trying to c

david dewhurst would have won this nomination handily. but pac money comes in, super pac money comes in and we end up with ted cruz. >> eliot: but around the nation and there are significant number of states where tea party candidates have unseated traditional mainstream republicans from senator lugar on down so by the most recent count there could be, and we don't know how some of these election also turn out, but there could be as many as 13 tea party united states senators which would fundamentally change the senate, play that out for us. what do you think that will look like? >> i think eliot, what has to happen we have to consider the notion that the extremist that we see getting elected might consume the republican moderates. it's not about building an army and destroying the other side, so we end up with a republican party that is extreme. if we are going to get past this if the american public is going to get a government that works, we got to avoid this some how. by avoiding it, that means we have to address the whole idea that a

text tea partyer, ted cruz, beat out the establishment candidate lieutenant governor david dewhurst who was supported by rick perry. in fact, in missouri, this is tomorrow you've got to watch this. we'll certainly be reporting on it. businessman young brunner, he leads the republican pact of republicans. the poll has brunner at 35% followed by aiken at 30%. stillman at 25%. then one week from tomorrow there is wisconsin former governor health and human services secretary tommy thompson. you may remember him. he wants to be the state's new senator. but many republicans question his conservative credentials because he had to go pragmatic as a governor. he's in a tight raise with eric eric and mark newman is apparently on his way up. now in abandon arizona the tea party has already won. both candidates, jeff flake and his challenger will cardon both have tea party support. here to discuss the current state of tea party candidates is wanda summers. thank you inside "the war room." >> thanks for having me. >> you bet. >> jennifer: so just last month people were writing the obituary for the t

ted cruz with a win against david dewhurst to capture the senate nomination for the republicans. dewhurst was considered the establishment gop candidate. cruz, the state's former solicitor general, calling his victory a win for many groups. >> tonight is a victory for the grass

. >> jennifer: when tea party darling ted cruz beats mainstream republican david dewhurst in texas' senate republican primary earlier this week it really did come as something of a surprise. dewhurst had more money, more endorsements more name recognition but cruz's victory may be less of an outlier than perhaps a harbinger of things to come. in several states, tea party senate candidates are on the rise. way up in wisconsin cruz's victory brought a fund-raising boom for tea party senate candidate mark neumann. his campaign said they saw a spike in donations following cruz's victory and promptly put out a statement calling wisconsin the next tea party battle and neumann is a conservative's choice. in missouri, the leading republican senate candidate is tea partier john brunner and he is something. here's what's really scary. he hasn't clinched the republican nomination. he's leading incumbent blue dog democrat claire mccaskill. this comes after indiana tea party candidate richard mourdock bumped off dig lugar in the indiana republican primary in may. are we going to see a tea party insurge

david dewhurst was backed by governor i can rick perry was outspent three to one. includes captured, 53% to dewhurst's 43%. >> it is a testament to republican women, to tea party leaders and to grassroots conservatives. [cheers and applause] this is how elections are supposed to be decided, by we the people. >> reporter: after losing the primary to dewhurst on may 29, cruz enjoyed a nine week gap before last night's runnoff. previously the longest gap between a primary and runnoff in texas history was five weeks. cruz used the 63 days wiselying raising money and earning free media. while he is a newcomer to elected politics, he attended harvard law, clerked at the supreme court for william rehnquist, worked in the bush 43 administration and married to a woman who works for goldman sachs. he received millions in support from likes of senator jim demint, sarah palin, freedomworks, led by former house majority leader dick armey, the club for growth and columnist and abc news commentator will and "national review" founded by william buckley, jr. ted cruz was backed by

in texas, you ran against establishment candidate lieutenant governor david dewhurst. what does your victory say about the state of the tea party at this point >> guest: it is emblematic of where the tea party is. in 2009 and 10, the movement was king they were out in the blazing sun protesting. and then in 2012 the protest died down and they went to work and getting involved in the campaigns. in our race in texas was incredible. it was a victory for grass root conservatives all over the state. and it illustrated at the end of the day the way elections are supposed to be decided. they are posed to be decide not by a handful of people picking the next nominee. but by we the people and it was thousands of republican women and tea party leaders and grass roots activist that generated our victory. >> chris: let's talk about what you stand for on the issues. you want to abolish education, commerce and energy departments. tsa and i.r.s.. you support a flat tax and serve chick-fil-a at your victory party. you are pretty conservative? >> guest: without a doubt. and i think the