This may mean nothing...

But Texas Monthly, usually a fairly reliable GOP (bidness, not craziness) house organ, seems to be hedging its bets.  There are two covers on the newsstands just now, as shown above.  Those are the presumptive candidates for the Democratic and GOP tickets for U.S. Senate from Texas.  Odd that the Democrat is getting so much attention, in a race that should be Cruz's for the asking.  Odd that Texas Monthly should go to the trouble of giving so much attention to the Democrats.

This is Texas, after all.

Maybe TM just feels burned because they went out on a limb for Dan Patrick, and he proceeded to saw it off.

I think TM was trying to get out in front of the parade with that one.  They ended up making Patrick their "Bum Steer of the Year" for 2018, mostly, according to TM, because he pushed too hard on the "bathroom bill."  What happened was, Patrick was never bigger than his mouth, and he used that mouth to get absolutely nothing through the Lege that he wanted passed, even forcing a special session on the "bathroom bill" that he lost, too.  Bob Bullock is the legendary Lt. Gov. of Texas who knew where the bodies were buried and how to make the Lege work; an LBJ clone on the state level, he set the standard for what the Lt. Gov, is supposed to be able to do.  Patrick ended up flopping around in Bullock's shoes and suit, all entirely too large for him.  TM still couldn't face the fact Patrick was an unreconstructed boob whose previous claim to fame was being a radio shock jock, a Limbaugh/Hannity Mini-Me.  Patrick has about that much depth and insight.  He's all ideological hat and no political cattle.  TM can't even bring itself to point out how Patrick made threats against Texas school districts which were following the law.  Granted, some of that was in 2016, and this award is for actions in 2017, but TM put Patrick "in charge" precisely because of stupid stunts like that.  Stupid stunts he tried to use again in the legislative session, to about as much effect as they had on the independent school districts which knew the Lt. Gov. had no authority over them whatsoever.

Oops, as our former Governor said.

So maybe TM is putting a finger in the wind and hedging their bets.  It's not impossible to imagine a Democrat more interested in governance than ideology winning even a U.S. Senate seat from Texas.  I've always maintained Texas sent at least one Senator to Washington because that person was too obnoxious even for Texas (I call this the "Phil Gramm Hypothesis"), and Senator is a choice made by all of us, not just some of us (on the Representative level there are pockets of voters as boorish as Blake Farenthold his own self).  But it is possible to be too obnoxious even for Texas to send you to D.C.  Or Austin, for that matter (there's a grassroots effort to mobilize school employees across the state to vote against Patrick in the open GOP primary in March, just because of how anti-education he really is.).  Business interests finally prevailed last summer in the Lege, and TM is nothing if not interested in Texas bidness.

Or maybe they finally hired a weatherman to tell 'em which way the wind is blowing.