BY AMANDA SEITZ AND WILL WEISSERT Associated Press
October 17, 2018 12:13 AM
Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke abandoned his optimistic tone and attacked Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz as "Lyin" Ted in their second debate before the election, borrowing a nickname first used by President Donald Trump.
It was one of the challenger's last chances to gain ground on Cruz, who is leading the polls even though O'Rourke has benefited from national media coverage of his unconventional campaign and a record amount of campaign cash.
A look at claims made in their debate Tuesday in San Antonio:
O'ROURKE: "Ted Cruz invested more than $5 million in Cambridge Analytica, which is the very company that helped to undermine our democracy, to feed false news and false opinions to our fellow Americans."
THE FACTS: Cruz didn't personally invest $5 million in Cambridge Analytica, the campaign consulting firm that was accused earlier this year of misusing data from 87 million Facebook accounts to target voters during elections. But Cruz's 2016 presidential campaign did spend millions of dollars purchasing the group's services.
Federal campaign finance reports show Cruz's presidential campaign committee spent $5.8 million with Cambridge Analytica between July 2015 and June 2016. The firm's work for the campaign included voter targeting, digital media and survey research, according to the Federal Election Commission's records.
In 2016, Cambridge helped the Cruz campaign send direct messages telling Iowa residents who live near red light cameras that the senator opposes their use.
Allegations that the firm improperly accessed personal information from Facebook users surfaced in March of this year, when the New York Times and The Guardian reported on the breach and Cambridge's work with Trump's campaign. Facebook suspended the firm and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Senate on the privacy missteps.
A Cambridge Analytica whistleblower said the firm identified voters and targeted them with messages that were true or untrue.
The now defunct company denied allegations that it used Facebook data to develop fake news or that the improperly accessed data was used to help Trump's campaign.
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