Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) made a last-ditch pitch this week for Senate candidate T.W. Shannon, saying he would be a conservative fighter for Oklahoma if he wins the Republican primary June 24.
Shannon faces off Tuesday against Rep. James Lankford (R-Okla.) and a handful of other candidates in the hopes of succeeding Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who is retiring.
Cruz's ad, released Thursday, is backed by $163,000 from the Senate Conservatives Fund.
“In Oklahoma, there are a number of good Senate candidates, but T.W. Shannon is a conservative fighter,” Cruz says in the ad. “He has the courage to look Washington insiders in the eye, and say, ‘I don’t work for you, I work for the people of Oklahoma,’” Cruz adds.
The only other candidate in an open-seat race Cruz has endorsed this cycle is Ben Sasse, who won the Republican nomination in Nebraska.
Shannon also has the endorsement of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Republicans are heavily favored to hold Coburn's seat. HuffPost Pollster, which combines all publicly available polling data, shows Lankford leading Shannon by just over four percentage points.
A runoff for the Republican nomination will be held on Aug. 26 if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the primary vote.
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