Senator Ted Cruz Says He’s Finally Ready To Debate His Challenger, Beto O’Rourke. And The First Of These Could Take Place In Dallas Next Month.

Whenever punk rock politician Beto O’Rourke and U.S. Sen. Ted “Listen, I’m Not Even Old Enough To Be The Zodiac Killer” Cruz, R-Texas, eventually meet up for a good ol’ fashioned debate ahead of November’s midterm election, you can bet it’ll make for some must-see TV.

It’s also starting to look like it could be a grudge match Dallasites can witness cage-side.

After O’Rourke’s camp sent debate proposals to the Cruz campaign in April and once again earlier this month, the incumbent has finally responded with an offer of his own. Yesterday, the sitting senator eschewed Beto’s suggestion of six debates, two of which would have been in Spanish and instead proposed a schedule of five debates, each of which would be an hour long and would take place on Friday nights in different cities across Texas.

Per the Cruz proposal, the first of these would be a podium-format debate on Friday, August 31, in a to-be-determined Dallas location. Should Cruz’s offer be accepted, Beto and the hall of fame member of the Princeton debate squad would trade barbs on jobs, taxes, federal regulations and the national economy right here in Big D.

“I am encouraged that Senator Cruz has decided that he’s ready to debate the issues,” O’Rourke replied to his opponent in a statement provided to the press. “Our campaign looks forward to working with his campaign to finalize mutually agreed upon details.”

As that quote acknowledges, none of this has yet been fully agreed upon.

Still, it’s looking more and more like debates will happen, and it stands to reason that Dallas will likely play host to one of these, given that a) Cruz seems into the idea, and b) it feels like there’s a “Beers With Beto” event every goddamn day around these parts as is, right?

Anyway, here’s the schedule the Cruz camp has floated:

Debate 1: Aug. 31 in Dallas on Jobs/Taxes/Federal Regulations/National Economy (podiums)
Debate 2: Sept. 14 in McAllen on Immigration/Border Security/Criminal Justice/Supreme Court (seated)
Debate 3: Sept. 21 in San Antonio on Foreign Policy/National Security (town hall)
Debate 4: Oct. 5 in Houston on Energy/Trade/Texas Economy (podiums)
Debate 5: Oct. 12 in Lubbock on Healthcare/Obamacare (town hall)

We’ll keep you posted on the details of any Dallas-hosted debates as they’re confirmed.

In the meantime, we’d like to quote the words of the great Judge Mills Lane:

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