Corpus Christi (KIII news) — Senator Ted Cruz brought his re-election campaign to Corpus Christi Tuesday afternoon, speaking first with supporters at the Solomon P. Ortiz Center and then with 3News.
"We need to build a wall. We need to build physical barriers and fences," Cruz said. "We need to use technology, fixed wing, and rotary wing aircraft, and infrared; but most importantly, we need boots on the ground."
Cruz talked tough on border security minutes after giving a campaign stump speech to his supporters. The senator is crisscrossing the state as his Democratic opponent, Beto O'Rourke, seems to be gaining momentum.
O'Rourke, a U.S. Representative out of El Paso, has raised nearly $7 million in campaign funds since the first of the year.
Cruz told the crowd that liberals are trying to take over the state and warned his supporters to show up in November.
"If you want to keep Texas low taxes, low regulations, if you want to keep jobs booming here in South Texas, then it's incumbent on conservatives to show up and vote," Cruz said. "He's running in support of open borders. He's running aggressively for gun control, and undermining our Second Amendment rights. Those aren't the values of Texas."
The immigration question is one of the senator's top issues, and he is in agreement with President Donald Trump. Trump now says that troops on the U.S.-Mexico border may be a reality until the wall is built.
Presidents Obama and George W. Bush sent National Guard troops to the border as well.
3News asked Cruz about a caravan of Hondurans who are traveling across Mexico to our border. Cruz said the military might have to be used to stop them.
"I think military force is certainly an appropriate step if it's beyond what the Border Patrol agents can do," Cruz said.
Cruz ran for the presidency back in 2016. That run only lasted a few months. 3News asked if he was going to try again in 2020.
"My focus is entirely on 2018, on getting re-elected to the United States Senate," Cruz said.
The senator left town and headed for San Antonio and then Austin on his 12-city, three-day campaign tour.
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