People never really liked Dewhurst. He’s been in Austin for a good, long time, and he’s not shown himself to be an effective politician. To wit, Texas is a “weak governor” state, with most of the power going to the lieutenant governor. However, Gov. “Oops!” Perry has consistently gotten whatever he wants, while Dewhurst has been one of the more forgettable lieutenant governor’s in decades. Plus, Dewhurst’s personality isn’t especially endearing. He’s an aloof rich guy with a lot of rich friends, all with a “Dallas-slick” appearance.
Dewhurst has run a spectacularly dirty campaign. He’s run ads about how Cruz has represented criminals. Criminals! A lawyer?! And he’s tried to peg Cruz with outsourcing jobs to China. No one has been impressed, and most newspapers have agreed with Cruz that Dewhurst has outright lied over and over. I’ve seen my share of GOP primaries, and I was biased in favor of Dewhurst, but he’s behaved shamefully. Bottom line: Dewhurst deserved to lose.
