Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred square off on Tuesday in the only debate between the candidates vying to represent Texas in Congress for the next six years. It comes less than a week before early voting begins for the November election and offers undecided Texans a near-final glimpse of where the candidates stand and how they align themselves with party leaders at the top of the ticket.
Most polls show Cruz with a slight lead over Allred, though the margins depend on the survey. Results of a Florida Atlantic University survey published last week showed Cruz up three points, while a Marist poll released two days later had Cruz up by five. Those results came after a late September poll that showed Allred up by one percentage point.
Cruz is seeking his third term as the state’s junior senator from Texas, a title he’s held since riding a Tea Party wave into Washington in 2012. The single-digit edge Cruz currently holds should be familiar to the incumbent after he narrowly defeated El Paso Democrat Beto O’Rourke in 2018.
Allred was first elected to the U.S. House to represent Texas' 32nd Congressional District, which includes part of Dallas, in 2018. He’s a former Baylor football standout and played five seasons in the National Football League.
Cruz and Allred are both attorneys by trade, with Cruz’s resume including his stint at the former Texas Solicitor General while Allred is a civil rights attorney who also served in the office of the general counsel for the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Cruz and Allred on the campaign trail
Allred has eschewed embracing some of the progressive policies championed by his far-left colleagues while on the campaign trail, instead choosing to run a more center-focused mission targeting what he deems are Cruz’s weaknesses or extremism. Allred was one of only three Texas Democrats to favor a resolution introduced in the U.S. House that officially condemned President Biden’s border policies, and he hasn’t made his support for Vice President Kamala Harris a centerpiece of his campaign.
Allred has also outraised Cruz on the money trail, hauling in more than $30 million to Cruz’s $21 million during that most recent fundraising cycle.
Cruz and his camp have continued to embrace tactics of national Republicans – amplifying Democrats’ perceived support of certain wedge issues. A quick review of Cruz’s social media posts or retweets range from calling Allred out on transgender issues and “rubber stamping” Democratic policies. On occasion, Cruz has also chosen the lowbrow approach, such as recently sharing a post from the satirical Babylon Bee that showed a white family donning traditional Mexican sombreros and thick mustaches to pose as immigrants to gain free access to hotels in New York City.
Allred has used his online profile to knock Cruz for supporting a near-total abortion ban. State and national Democrats are betting the issue of reproductive health proves the albatross for Republicans as polling shows extreme laws on abortion aren’t widely supported. Allred is also coming at Cruz on social security, charging that Cruz has called it a “Ponzi scheme” and that the senator favors raising the retirement age.
Tuesday’s debate comes just six days before early voting begins in Texas. The debate will be put on by WFAA in downtown Dallas and moderated by veteran reporters Jason Whitely of WFAA and Gromer Jeffers, Jr. from The Dallas Morning News.
The rules for the debate, as posted on the station's website, are: candidates will get a minute for introductions; each will get 90 seconds after being asked a question with 90 seconds allotted for the other candidate to respond. Moderators will also ask a follow up question if necessary. Cruz and Allred will also have a minute for closing statements at the end of the hourlong debate.
The campaign has seen both men significantly pad their respective war chests, despite Allred edging out Cruz in the latest fundraising period. To date, the two campaigns have raised about $132 million, the Texas Tribune reported. That makes the race one of the most expensive in the country.
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