morning news" sass dewhurst has served as a moderate republican. >> "the houston chronicle" says dewhursta moderate. >> vote against dewhurst on may 29th. >> by the way, we can have a debate about that's a negative primary ad. some of you are shaking your head. dewhurst is running ads with a little help from his boss, the governor, and former presidential candidate rick perry. >> you know the d.c. insiders are scared when they spend millions attacking texas conservatives. despite their d.c. double talk, the facts are simple. david dewhurst is a fighter. >> the wild cards here are leppert and james. while the texas republican primary is two weeks ago, if no within gets 50%, the top two vote getters get g to a runoff in july. and the dewhurst folks in particular are very scared of something they've never been involved with before. joining me now as i promised when we had technical difficulties the first time, texas republican candidate greg james. good morning. >> thank you for having me back. >> it's a soft ball here but do you take some lessons out of nebraska and think, okay, maybe my ca

this is an ad running in texas against david dewhurst. >> "the wall street journal" says dewhurst supported an income tax for texas. >> moderate tax-raising david dewhurst, wrong for texas. >> wrote against dewhurst on may 29th. club for growth action is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> tom, you've seen the other ad that says "the dallas morning news" says that he's a moderate. all that was missing was the evil voice. really? >> this is the ideological sorting of the party's left and right. >> where is it happening -- it's not happening on the left as much. >> there are two primary races in pennsylvania, two more moderate democrats -- >> it's not naerly what we're seeing on the right. >> i think the republican party is having this tug of war within itself. look, most of these districts and states now are either red or blue. they're not even purple. this doesn't work in a purple area. >> you were on the front lines of an ideological fight. >> was i ever. >> but you made it back. you beat it back. at least one-half of it. >> i did. >> and not in the general. >> but it weake

talk about who dewhurst is. to everybody who he is and comparatively to cruz, the other candidate, they're basically the neck and neck contenders in this race. >> right. so, david dewhurst has been lieutenant governor in texas for the past nine years and he, texas politics, considered a moderate. he's governing in state politics moderately speaking. ted cruz comes from his right flank, a lot more conservative, and a darling of the tea party. looks like someone we know from florida, handsome, young, articulate, a lot like marco rubio. and it has gotten so ugly here in texas. and it got especially ugly this weekend when lieutenant governor dewhurst claimed that ted cruz was the a-word, that he was for amnesty, and this has turned so negative because cruz has been creeping up on dewhurst over the past couple of weeks. which is going to ultimately force it into a run-off. and in the run-off, cruz is going to have a very good chance of clinching that nomination and hence winning the texas senate seat. >> as you bring

in the lead is lieutenant governor david dewhurst but right behind him is ted cruz, the tea party manacked by club for growth, south carolina senator, and the unavoidable sarah palin. the chasm between the conservative and the really conservative has grown worse. >> the dallas morning news says does hurst has served as a moderate republican. >> the houston chronicle says dewhurst is generally considered a moderate. >> a moderate at heart says the texas observer. >> that's right. now it's an insult to come somebody moderate as in reasonable or balanced. what does the tea party want? apparently the opposite of that. the opposite >>(narrator) gavin newsom, lieutenant governor of california, and former mayor of san francisco is on current tv. >>every night on cable news networks everyone's focusing on what's wrong. i want this show to move past that. i love creative people, and with all the vexing problems we have we need creative thinking. >>(narrator) with interviews with notables from silicon valley, hollywood, and beyond. >>at the end of the day this show's simple. it's about ideas. i

. >> dewhurst is in his 60s and cruz is in his 40s. younger voters offer energy and someone to serve a state for 30 years or more. >> bret: more on this with the panel. thank you. nowhere is fighting to hang on to congressional power down and dirty than new jersey. eric shawn report on friends who have become political enemies. >> it could be the fiercest primary race in country. >> it's not fun. neither bill nor i want to retire from congress. >> two veteran democratic congressman fighting for same job. new jersey has lost congressional seat because of restrikeing. so they are facing off against each other. >> it's never easy to compete for the same thing. >> friends like that, i don't need enemies. >> presidents against each other, too. back then, senator obama if 2008. now axelrod says the president is not taking sides endorsed rothman. if you ask about president clinton and endorsed by bill clinton set to campaign for him on friday. klilton said in a statement i know bill and he is the fighter we need to support president obama. >>

the super pac for dewhurst is backing dewhurst very strongly so it's tough for cruz to establish himselfalways happen a lot in smaller states. shameless plugs. >> tomorrow is the first anniversary of the -- rahm emanuel did a great review of his year. >>> i have to plug robert gibbs taking away jeopardy last night. knowing things we never knew. >> my younger brother, tim, graduated from temple university over the weekend. go owls. congrats to him. >>> my shameless plug will continue to be the nbc politics app. download it now at the itunes store and don't tweet me about android. we're working on it. tomorrow on the show, senator barbara boxer and former football star craig james. this time we'll have him on camera. he's running for office trying to be an insurgent in texas. coming up. "chris jansing and company," bye-bye. >>> i can almost guarantee some airport delays today and travel trouble on the roads throughout areas of new england and the mid-atlantic. thunderstorms are widespread with some downpours locally d.c. to philadelphia to new york city. detroit and chicago look just fine.

in the lead is lieutenant governor david dewhurst, but right behind him is ted cruz the tea party mand by club for growth south carolina senator, and the unavoidable sarah palin. the chasm between the conservative and the really conservative has grown worse. >> the dallas morning news says does hurst has served as a moderate republican. >> the houston chronicle says dewhurst is generally considered a moderate. >> a moderate at heart says the texas observer. >> that's right. now it's an insult to come somebody moderate as in reasonable or balanced. what does the tea party want? apparently the opposite of that. the opposite is excessive and wild. that's the mess and the choice in texas and a lot of other places. jennifer granholm is politically direct on current tv. >>the dominoes are starting to fall. (vo) granholm is live in the war room. >> what should women be doing? >> electing women to office. (vo) she's a political trailblazer. >>republicans of course didn't let facts get in the way of spin. >>do it, for america. >>> there's a reason that the ceos of airlines don't sit on the nat

very quickly about ted cruz versus david dewhurst. the runoff isn't till july. look for this as a chance for the tea party to score against the establishment like they did in indiana against dick lugar. >> wasn't sarah palin on ted cruz's side in that campaign? >> she was indeed and jim demint and the club for growth. >> another victory for sarah palin in this anti-incumbent at least tea party effort against incumbents. thanks so much. >> thank you. >> see you later, chris sa little za. the death toll continues in syria. new video showing the latest blood shed. this is disturbing. the images are from eastern syria where u.n. observers found the bodies of 138 people handcuffed, blindfolded shot execution style. nbc cannot verify the authenticity of this video but its eamerican jens only days after the massacre in houla is fueling concern over the growing crisis. a men mo ha dean is live in cairo. we know that kofi annan has left damascus, he and his team briefing the u.n. security council. they've had a lengthy meeting today in new york going on at this hour. wha

. >>> also in texas last night, the bigger race was the senate race, lut governor david dewhurst who stamped with the establishment label by a boatload of national conservatives from washington. he failed to avoid a runoff and he's now focused on a race at the end of july. he won just 45% of the republican primary vote to succeed senator kay bailey hutchison making him frankly the underdog which will likely be a very low turnout runoff against ted cruz, the favorite of tea party and conservatives. a runoff in the dead of summer with two months instead of one month, that's an establishment candidate's worst nightmare. cruz declared victory and challenged dewhurst to five debates in the next two months. >> this race is ground zero in the battle between the moderate establishment and the conservative tea party tidal wave that is sweeping this country. and if he wants to make the case to the people of texas that he thinks i'm an amnesty-supporting, china-loving, pinko liberal, then i encourage him to do so. in person. >> all right. well, we're going to be watching that closely, by the wa

he is backing dewhurst in this particular race.ck perry has reached the end of his line in state politics. abc news poll has taken a look at the candidates, the economy, and race and found out most white voters chooses mitt romney over obama. 52% say mitt romney would do better than president obama. but non-white voters give the president a substantial lead when asked the same question, 71%. a new gallup poll show most professionals prefer president obama, but when it comes to managers and executives romney takes the lead 49-42. among all workers, mitt romney has a slight 2-point lead, but that is within the poll's margin of error. we're live in chat go to current.com/staff staff. we will see you there right after the break. while you're out catching a movie. [ growls ] lucky for me your friends showed up with this awesome bone. hey! you guys are great. and if you got your home insurance where you got your cut rate car insurance, it might not replace all this. [ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save mo

jenna: with us lieutenant governor david dewhurst.governor, you heard a little bit what ted had to say there. start with the strong conservative point because some have described you as a moderate republican. and i'm wondering if you would describe yourself that way and what is a moderate republican? >> first of all that is all political spin by mr. cruz and his washington special interests who spent $6.5 million in negative ads against me. not one statement which is true other than they pronounced my name correctly. jenna lee, there is not a dime's difference between a governor rick perry's conservative record and mine. i've cut taxes in texas 51 times. i have every year cut spending by billions of dollars. $14 billion last year. i balanced five state budgets. i have led the fight against obamacare. i'm a lifelong conservative businessman. jenna: some point to that experience as a negative, right? that's what we heard in the rhetoric of this campaign. the more experience you have, the more insider you are. i'm just curious, you obvio

dewhurst failed to win 50% of the vote. they will meet up in july.n the democratic side eight term congressman sylvester reyes losing to an el paso man after receiving an endorsement from president obama. mike, let's start first with the republican side. what about that battle and what are some of the dynamics at play. >> reporter: even though it's heading for a runoff it's being called the third tea party victory in three weeks because now it's down to a two man race, a turn out in an end of july vote can be extremely unpredictable. ted cruz worked the grassroots to pin pick up support from the tea party and support from rick santorum and sarah palin. dewhurst is playing on state pride saying outside groups should not mess with texas, and that text ands want to elect their own senator. de week hurst led a crowded nine-person g.o.p. field and has the support of key texas leaders such as governor rick perry. but turn out in the runoff will be critical and both candidates are talking to reporters this hour as they try to move forward, jenna. jenna: mik

david dewhurst is at 47%. ted cruz at 29%. again, one of these candidates has to go above 50% to avoid a runoff. we'll be watching that tonight. this is the race to watch tonight in texas although there's some other down ballot action there. at the tip top of the ticket, there's some news even though there's not been much suspense. nbc news is projecting that mitt romney is the winner in texas and importantly, that he will win enough delegates in texas tonight to clinch the republican nomination for president. texas has ended up having a really important role to play in the presidential race. we will no longer after tonight have to call mitt romney the defacto nominee. thanks to texas tonight, mitt romney will be the republican party's presidential projected nominee full stop. as i said, this is not a surprise. once everybody else was out of the race and before everybody was out of race, you can do the math easy. you can figure out mitt romney would be clinching the nomination and it's likely to happen tonight. you can figure

david dewhurst is the front runner at the moment. he is not necessarily going to win the nomination. if he doesn't he'll have a runoff on july 31st. cruz is a national conservative favorite. dewhurst gets the backing of governor rick perry and mike huckabee. whoever wins the nomination is expected to take kay bailey hutchison seat in november who is retiring. neither president obama nor mitt romney has served in the armed forces. romney got a draft deferment for being a mormon minister of religion, and the president turned 18 six years after the draft. the president and the first lady have spent a considerable effort making military families a priority. we are back with more show after the break, join us online, current.com/stephaniemiller. we'll be right back. the system, now it's your turn. >>it's a little bit of magic. >>connect with "talking liberally with stephanie miller" at facebook.com/stephaniemillershow and on twitter at smshow. for the energy to keep you going. who wouldn't want to be a part of that? payday. the sweet tast

jenna: dewhurst had governor mike huckabee, but ted cruz had the sarah palin endorsement. >> that oneuse if you look at the previous races in the last couple of months, in indiana, in nebraska where you had upsets, you had a six-term senator, dick lugar, being defeated by a conservative tea party candidate. in both of those instances, jenna, a key factor in nebraska and indiana was sarah palin coming in and endorsing the upstart candidate. and just about a week ago she endorsed ted cruz, and that's given momentum to cruz, no question about it. she's a queen maker. [laughter] -and-a-half n you think so? is. >> she's the king maker. jenna: do you think that continues? >> we'll see tonight. but as you said, texas is a big state. dewhurst has about twice as much money -- jenna: and within the pages of your paper, editorials and even the one you wrote noted something that you thought maybe is not as indicative of other quote-unquote tea party candidates that hasn't exactly jibed. >> exactly. the problem with ted cruz, and i like him a lot, i interviewed him, spent a lot of time with him, h

> tea party favorite, ted cruz, did indeed get enough votes in yesterday's primary to deny david dewhursteans there will be a run off in texas nine weeks from now. it also means that for the third time in three weeks a tea party candidate has successfully taken on a republican establishment senate candidate and even beaten them or, as in this case, forced a run off. earlier this month richard murdoch in indiana beat dick lugo. just had deb fisher upset two better-no oneknown candidates in nebraska. and yet they talk about the death of the tea party. the tea party is a nonfactor. the republican establishment talks about the detect of the tea party, all because they don't see it except on election day. and then they see it, and then they hear it, and then they start cursing. the tea party started as a protest movement and, of course, you can't miss a protest movement. people showing up at town hall meetings. they have moved beyond that now. they are working at the grass roots to get people elected, and it's working. >> does rush have a point? shera joins us. nice to see you. so is the tea p

ted cruise has the endorsement of sarah palin and david dewhurst has the backing of his boss.nd the presidential race is over, let's face it. but we've got really good house and senate races and that senate race is heating up. what about the tea party candidate versus the establishment candidate? >> well i think it's going to be another illustration of a contest that we've seen really going on now for two years but we've seen it recently in the lugar versus murdoch contest, which is how strong are these kind of anti-establishment sentiments in the particularly the republican electorate? we see this in the democratic electorate, too. how much are people going to penalize incumbents not on ideological grounds about a general sense, you've been up there too long, time for a change. >> one of the issues is, and this is a big issue, of course, in texas, immigration. and the tea party candidate attacking due hurst for allegedly supporting amnesty. >> that's right. although more complicated politics in texas certainly rick perry, for instance, popular texas governor, though they didn

cruz and seven other republicans competed holding dewhurst to 47%.1st. cruz had the backing of tea party express, freedom works, jim demint, sarah palin ron paul and he is a cuban american lawyer who served as state solicitor general. we have seen similar tea party successes so far in states like utah, indiana and nebraska. talking points memo reporting this morning that six members of florida's congressional delegation are reaching out to governor rick scott, telling him to stop purging eligible voters from the state voting roles. under scott, officials have been using an outdated driver's license database to try and find non-citizens and make them prove their citizenship within 30 days. hundreds of actual citizens are getting caught up in the flawed process. and now the six members of congress have sentence a letter to rick scott telling him to stop. they say florida has never had a problem with mass voter fraud, it has had a problem with wrongly purging he will eligible voters from the role. hispanic, democratic and independent voters are getting

dewhurst can boast the support of rick perry and mike huckabee.ver eventually wins the nomination is expected to win senator kay bailey hutchinson's seat in november. she is retiring. peter is sitting in for bill. we're back with more after the break. join us current.com/bill press. >> we're not through just yet, mr. vice president. >> they're swimming against the tides. (vo) brought to you by pradaxa. i have the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. i was taking warfarin, but my doctor put me on pradaxa instead to reduce my risk of stroke. in a clinical trial, pradaxa® (dabigatran etexilate mesylate) reduced stroke risk 35% better than warfarin. and unlike warfarin, with pradaxa, there's no need for regular blood tests. that's really important to me. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or

just in the last couple days dewhurst has put in $6 million more of his own money.w well, congressman ralph hall, the oldest member of the house, 89. he's been there since '81. he could lose his primary to a tea party upstart. >> big night in texas. >> yes, it is. >> politico's mike allen. mike, thanks. we'll talk to you. >> one more headline, senator marco rubio announced he's just taken off for guantanamo bay cuba going there with the senate intel committee. >> oh, my gosh. that's huge. >> cover that tomorrow. >>> coming up next, what, if anything, did we learn today. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. pull on those gardening gloves. and let's see how colorful an afternoon can be. with the home depot certified advice to help us expand our palette... ...and p

from club for growth which is spending about roughly i think a million dollars in support for david dewhurstg there. if they're successful, if in fact you can be brought into congress on the philosophy, my way or the highway, what do you think is the risk? what happens at the end of it all? >> fortunately for the voters of indiana, they have a good centrist choice in joe donnelly who is running but in all these other states we've seen some of the finest states in america go down to defeat because they were not partisan extremists. i hope voters realize if they want to keep america strong we have to have enough folks in the middle to get things done. that's the way america has functioned throughout our 200-year history. we wouldn't even have washington, d.c. where it is today if we hadn't had a compromise between the states. virtually every major one was a result of compromise and we have to continue if we remain strong. >> seems to me this is missing the point. what are you -- >> why, thank you, will. >> what are you compromising towards? compromise isn't just a fetish we laude. you have to

he's a corporate lawyer, make probably a million dollars a year, and not that dave dewhurst is a moderatell screwed up because of the reinforcement battle and the primary was off. cruz had a strong grass roots endorsement by people like sarah palin and others, dewherst was endorsed by governor perry, a lot of media, unspent his opponents 2-1 but clearly didn't turn out a vote that maximizes his support. martha: it's fascinating to me because one of the questions in politics is what happened to the tea party. they didn't really end up with a presidential candidate in this race and they seemed to be focusing on some of the smaller races and really trying to have some influence over the senate and house races as well. do you think there they're as strong as they once were a force in this and do races like this suggest they are? >> they're alive and well, let me just say that, and whether they're as strong as they were in 2010, we'll see 2010, the mission was purely go out and vote against democrat incumbents and they did that very effectively. here it's getting involved in primaries. they to

perry is backed by dewhurst. >> stephanie: both of those brain trusts together.but the republicans are far eating their own faces devouring their own. if this guy ted cruise should be an upset winner in texas, he could lose statewide. even in texas. that's likely to happen. indiana is now in play in the senate. that republican candidate could lose statewide. >> stephanie: what do you make -- obama ahead in the swing states right now which i know it is early but he's looking good, right? >> if the election were held today. i'm worried about the electrified fences. what just happened. the president and you know hal interested to know how people are reacting to it. the president put that 2% or 3% of swing votes in play, in places like north carolina and florida and virginia and indiana, all states he carried. by supporting same-sex marriage. and that is a big -- he did the right thing for the country and for history. are those states in play now? is ohio in play? does that help or hurt? we're going to find out. >> stephanie: my favorite thing about the polling is pe

lieutenant governor david dewhurst, the guy with all of the money and backing from governor rick perry and others. people thought he would easily become the nominee to succeed kay bailey hutchison. but he fell short in this primary. ted cruz, the state auditor, got enough so that they'll have a runoff july 31. and national conservatives believe that this underdog conservative candidate could well win in that runoff. ted cruz was identified 11 months ago. george will did a column saying, hey, this is someone who clerked for chief justice rehnquist. helped start the harvard hispanic law review. this is someone conservative. you should pay attention to it. club for growth endorsed him. sarah palin. rove did calls for him. so it shows even though it's a little bit off the radar screen with the presidential race going on, the tea party goes on. >> what's the race look like in the general election? there's a lot of races where the republican nominee wins. do republicans need to be concerned about a guy being too conservative for the general electorate, even in texas? >> just the opposite. he