Ted Cruz's talkathon on the U.S. Senate floor had no hope of legislative success. It largely boiled down to political performance art in Washington.
But for Texas politics, it could be transformative.
It's energizing the state grassroots conservatives that already helped Cruz rise from electoral longshot to national star. It may ultimately prove a boon for other tea party-backed candidates waiting to follow in his footsteps.
While no one is expecting an army of Cruz clones, he may be a model for a certain type of confrontational conservatism back home.
Implications of that would stretch far beyond its own borders since Texas is the nation's richest GOP donor state. It also has repeatedly been a cradle for Republican presidential candidates — perhaps even Cruz himself in 2016.
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