Four Years to Purple, or a Hundred Years to Blue?
Take your pick, folks:
Texas Monthly Senior Editor Paul Burka, in the days leading up to this past Tuesday’s Cruz-Dewhurst runoff:
I had a conversation with a nationally known Republican consultant yesterday. Here is what he told me: “If Ted Cruz wins the Senate race, Texas will be a purple state in four years.” In other words, the tea party is so extreme that even a Democrat might be able to get elected. Does it change anyone’s thinking? Probably not.
Or Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, who tweeted the following after Cruz (and other Hispanic Republicans) emerged victorious Tuesday night: 
We shall see. Given Abbott’s status as a leader in disfranchising Hispanic voters in Texas, he might not be the best judge of where Latino politics is headed. That being said, Obama’s 43.6% vote share in the Lone Star state four years ago was a modern high-water mark and higher than any of us saw coming, yet still so far from putting the state in play. Texas is going to get purple, but whether it’s 2016 or 2020 remains anyone’s guess. Well, anyone but Abbott, of course.
Within the Margin 