Beto O'Rourke made a reference to The Clash in his debate with Ted Cruz and everyone loved it

On Friday night, Ted Cruz and his opponent, Beto O'Rourke engaged in a fiery and charged debate as they both presented their cases to the people of Texas.

This was the first of three debates that the pair are due to have and, if this was anything to go by, there will be plenty of sparks flying for the next few weeks.

The pair butted heads on issues such as gun control, immigration, healthcare, drugs, national anthem protests, Brett Kavanaugh and Donald Trump.

Both stood at almost polar opposites on nearly every topic with both men aiming jibes at each other for their stark political stances.

Progressive Democrat O'Rourke has experienced a surprising rise in polls in Texas with the 45-year-old El Paso native considerably closing the gap on Cruz in the past week.

Towards the end of last night's debate, O'Rourke found himself as the internet's new favourite Democrat after he dropped a subtle reference to a song by The Clash when criticising Cruz's ties to big corporations.

He said:

I want to make sure that we're are not giving away to corporations or special interests.

That's what Senator Cruz would do thanks to the contributions he's received from those political action committees.

He's working for the clampdown and the corporations and the special interests. 

He's not working for the people of Texas.

The song he was referencing was the anti-establishment anthem 'Clampdown' which comes from the punk pioneers seminal 1979 album London's Calling.

Given that O'Rourke was once in the punk band Foss, which also featured At The Drive-In and Mars Volta Cedric Bixler-Zavala, it's unsurprising that he would so casually drop a reference like this into such a highly charged debate.

Once people noticed his reference O'Rourke's name went viral and people were loving his punk rock roots and rightly so.

Someone even threw together this mash-up video on YouTube featuring O'Rourke and the original song.

Despite this sudden rise in popularity, Cruz was noticeably cheered more by the crowd at the Southern Methodist University, so he may still have something of an uphill battle to contend with in the upcoming midterm elections.

HT Daily Dot

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