Ted Cruz campaign baffles Texas by calling Beto O'Rourke a 'Triple Meat Whataburger liberal'

Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) supremely Texan insult is sure to destroy his Senate competitor Rep. Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas) — if anyone can figure out what it means.

O'Rourke, the increasingly popular Democrat vying for Cruz's Senate seat, has a campaign logo that looks suspiciously like a package of spicy ketchup from Texas fast food chain Whataburger. When asked for a response to the similarities, Cruz's spokesperson gave the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this intriguing answer:

And unlike your average play-on-words political insult, this winding metaphor gives Texans a lot to swallow. It begins as a saucy slam on O'Rourke, but unwisely savages the chain's massive signature item as "out of touch" and suggests Cruz dislikes the beloved business as a whole.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Then again, Texas Monthly suggests "Triple Meat Whataburger liberal" means O'Rourke is too elite, like Cruz's tweet blasting Stephen King as a "limousine liberal." That option, however geographically relevant, still disparages the Texas staple.

Or perhaps the super stack is just a substitute for "big," and O'Rourke is just a big 'ol liberal. But that would imply O'Rourke is just a normal guy, seeing as everything is bigger in Texas.