First Politico made the call, then Sen. Jim DeMint released the following statement via Facebook:
Congratulations to Ted Cruz! Ted’s victory is a loud statement to the Washington establishment that Americans are ready to take back their country. Under the old system, the party establishment picked the status-quo candidates who toed the party line. But, the people have risen up to elect principled leaders like Ted Cruz who will take on big spenders in both parties and fight to save America from fiscal collapse. Voters trust Ted Cruz to reform Washington instead of becoming part of it. In 2010, America sent Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson, Marco Rubio, and Pat Toomey to the Senate. In 2012, we have the chance to elect more courageous leaders like Ted Cruz, Richard Mourdock, Josh Mandel, Mark Neumann, and Jeff Flake. Tonight’s victory will have Washington shaking in its boots but give freedom-loving Americans everywhere.
The Associated Press followed suit...
Former state solicitor general Ted Cruz, a tea party-aligned conservative once regarded as a long-shot candidate, has won the Republican runoff in Texas, where he will be the GOP nominee for the U.S. Senate in the November election. The Associated Press has called the race for Cruz over Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. Cruz will be a heavy favorite over Democratic nominee Paul Sadler, who also won a runoff on Tuesday.
Congratulations to Ted Cruz, Texas' next U.S. Senator! And congratulations TEXAS! Lone Star conservatives have changed the landscape for the rest of the nation with this victory. Oh...and the tea party is alive and well, folks.
ADDENDUM: Check out Ted's amazing victory speech here!
Here's another report from Wednesday morning...
Fox News: Ted Cruz is fond of saying that when he began his run for U.S. Senate, he was at 2 percent in the polls against Texas Republican juggernaut David Dewhurst, the state's lieutenant governor for nearly a decade.
Actually, the 41-year-old former state solicitor general seemed an even longer shot than that.
Gov. Rick Perry and much of the rest of the Republican establishment lined up to endorse Dewhurst for their party's nomination to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and the party's mainstream doesn't lose much in Texas. After all, the state hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office in nearly 20 years.
But Cruz pulled off what had seemed an unthinkable upset Tuesday, and it wasn't even close. He trounced Dewhurst by about 13 percentage points, shaking one of America's reddest states to its political core.
His victory was all the more stunning considering Cruz lost to the lieutenant governor 44 percent to 34 percent during the state's May 29 primary. But simply making it to a second round of voting proved a major momentum-builder for Cruz, who vowed to prevail since his supporters were dedicated enough to turn out during the Texas summer doldrums.
Cruz got there by spending months sitting in on Republican women's meetings at Denny's, chatting up pastors at Bible studies and addressing tea party gatherings across Texas. Eventually, he became enough of a grass-roots sensation to attract the support of national conservative groups such as the anti-tax Club for Growth, which branded Dewhurst as too moderate and spent millions to help defeat him.
I'd also add another plus for Palin.
Levin also saluted the people of Texas at the beginning of Wednesday's program "for voting in Ted Cruz in the Republican primary as conservatives once again have proven that they will not succumb to the Establishment."
