U.S. Senate hopeful and Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst had many of his state's brightest political stars in his corner.
Gov. Rick Perry, baseball icon Nolan Ryan, and a virtual directory of statewide offices: comptroller, land commissioner, agricultural commissioner, a railroad commissioner and a parade of state senators all backed Dewhurst.
Tea party darling Ted Cruz countered with outside firepower, especially former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
In the end, the big names from faraway places generated a fervor Texas' home-turf big guns could not. Texans overwhelmingly chose Cruz as the Republican nominee to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.
But the race wasn't so much a question of outsiders trouncing Texan political muscle as it was voters' angry rebuke of politics as usual -- even the homegrown kind.
