Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, who is in a runoff with tea party-backed Ted Cruz for the Republican Senate nomination, accepted his opponent’s challenge to five televised debates, but added a caveat: He wants one of the debates to be conducted in Spanish.
Cruz, a second-generation Cuban-American who grew up speaking “Spanglish,” according to the Houston Chronicle, is not fluent in Spanish. Dewhurst learned Spanish while on assignment for the CIA in Bolivia.
“When I came back from Bolivia, my Spanish was in some ways as good as my English,” Dewhurst said. “I am rusty today. But I am comfortable talking in Spanish. I am not flawless or fluent, but I am comfortable. It takes me a day or two speaking a lot of Spanish to get back into a rhythm.”
“I would welcome a debate with Dewhurst in any form, but I think we would have a better debate if we did the debate in English,” Cruz told Univision in response.
