Hispanic loses to O'Rourke in Hispanic disrict

AP/Houston Chronicle:
 A former city councilman who supports legalizing marijuana ousted an eight-term Texas congressman from his district along the U.S-Mexico border and shook up a run of easy incumbent victories with a Democratic primary stunner.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, who was first elected in 1996 and was largely regarded as safe this election year by political observers, narrowly lost to Beto O'RourkeTuesday in a campaign that quietly played out around El Paso as perhaps the most intense and negative U.S. House race in the state.
O'Rourke, 39, hasn't held public office beyond the El Paso city council and now awaits a likely coronation to Congress this November in the heavily Democratic district. He railed against Reyes for being a Washington insider.
President Barack Obama endorsed Reyes in the primary, and former President Bill Clinton went to the district to campaign for him. The congressman also ran television spots recounting O'Rouke's arrests for burglary and driving while intoxicated in the 1990s.
El Paso voter Henry Payan said the campaign from both candidates was so negative, "I almost ended up not voting."
O'Rourke has supported the idea of legalizing marijuana as a way to make a dent in a violent drug war playing out directly across the border from El Paso in Ciduad Juarez. O'Rourke, however, has said he would not press for legalization in Congress.
He narrowly dodged a runoff; O'Rourke won a majority by the slimmest of margins, beating Reyes by fewer than 3,000 votes with all precincts reporting.
...
There is much more.

Reyes did not show much intellect while working on the House Intelligence Committee.  O'Rourke does not appear to be much brighter, but it is a Democrat district so he is likely to win anyway.  One aspect of the race that may suggest a maturity on the part of Hispanic voters, is that they did not all cast a tribal vote.  That could mean the GOP may make some in roads with Hispanic voters this fall.
 

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