Supporters of President Trump began lining up 24 hours in advance to attend his campaign rally Monday night in Houston, Texas, for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Houston police began blocking off streets in downtown Houston Sunday night around the Toyota Center, site of the rally. By nightfall Sunday, there were several hundred people in a line snaking along city streets, waiting to see the president.
“We’re not planning on sleeping,” Trump supporter Lisa Brewer told the Houston Chronicle. “Just the adrenaline alone will fuel us all.”
Glen Collins and his fiancee, DeeJay Miller, told the paper that they drove 180 miles from Waco after leaving their five-month-old baby with a relative. They reserved a hotel room in Houston, but decided to eat the cost and wait with others all night on the street when they saw the length of the line that had already formed.
“I said, ’We can’t take our chances. We just gotta sit out here,’ ” Mr. Collins told the Chronicle.
The rally will be Mr. Trump’s first campaign trip to Texas since winning the presidency. Mr. Cruz is leading in polls against Democratic state Rep. Beto O’Rourke. The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Mr. Cruz leading by 7 percentage points.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz had a sometimes bitter rivalry for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, with Mr. Cruz refusing to endorse Mr. Trump at the GOP convention. Mr. Trump mocked his opponent during the campaign as “Lyin’ Ted,” and the senator at one point called Mr. Trump a “sniveling coward.”
They have since worked as partners in Washington, and Mr. Cruz has benefited from campaign visits from Vice President Mike Pence, and Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump.
With the midterm elections two weeks away, Mr. Trump also will make campaign stops this week in North Carolina, Illinois and Wisconsin.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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