Waxahachie, Texas CNN —
On a sunny October afternoon, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz posed for photos with supporters next to his campaign bus in downtown Waxahachie. Downtown Waxahachie was a historic square lined with quaint storefronts and a mythical-looking courthouse.
The city is the seat of conservative Ellis County, just south of Dallas, and is named for one of the leaders who helped Texas declare independence from Mexico in 1836. Mr. Cruz had just given an impassioned speech across the street at an old theater called the Texas Theatre. There he rallied the crowd with red-blooded rhetoric and jokes that appealed to the state’s unique sense of pride.
“We were founded by a bunch of wildcats,” he said on stage, wearing jeans and boots. “A bunch of guys with a fourth-grade education started digging holes in the ground, and one by one they became the richest people on the planet. That’s Texas! Texas gave them fields, horses, and guns. If you give me it, I can conquer the world.”
Mr. Cruz, one of the most conservative senators, should be successful in his bid for a third term in a state that has consistently elected Republicans in statewide elections for the past 30 years. But for the second consecutive election, Mr. Cruz finds himself fighting to defend his seat against well-funded Democrats.
Congressman Colin Allred is a former NFL linebacker and civil rights attorney who ousted Republicans from running for the U.S. House of Representatives six years ago. He is now challenging Mr. Cruz, painting the incumbent senator as an unlikely politician more concerned with podcasting than legislation.
Recent polls predict a close race similar to the one seen in 2018, when Democrat Beto O’Rourke lost to Cruz by less than three points. The National Democratic Party Group is again investing heavily in TV advertising, fueling well-publicized hopes that it can pull off a major upset, but many remain skeptical.
While both men portray themselves as serious legislators who can work across the aisle, they have accused each other of being radical candidates who are out of touch with Texas voters. The TV ad war further highlights the stark contrast between two new but competing ideas among Texas voters: long-standing conservatives and an evolving landscape that is increasingly Democratic. It’s highlighted.
The latter is a reality that has cast a shadow over Mr. Cruz’s campaign, most notably his appeal to voters visiting 53 cities to vote Republican across the board.
“The whole point of this race is one very simple thing: Keep Texas Texas,” he said in a stump speech.
Issues: economics, borders, transgender policy
In the final weeks before the election, both candidates are crisscrossing the state to hammer home their final messages. The two men are also scheduled to square off on Tuesday in a televised debate hosted by CNN affiliate WFAA.
Add to this the huge sums of money spent on advertising in the state’s rich and expensive media market. The two campaigns and their allies have spent nearly $129 million, including future ad buys through Election Day, in the eight most expensive Senate races this term, according to AdImpact data. It has become one. Allred and groups supporting him spent nearly two-thirds of that total, while Cruz and his supporters spent the remaining third.
Cruz has primarily targeted attacks against Allred on three issues: the economy, the U.S. southern border and transgender policy. He cited several points out that Allred voted last year against a Republican-led House bill that would have banned transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports at schools receiving federal funding. Announced TV advertisement. The bill passed on a party-line vote but was not taken up in the Senate.
Cruz will feature the topic prominently in his stump speech during his campaign. “We currently live in a world where neither of the two major political parties understands what it means to be a woman,” he said. “It wasn’t a trick question before.”
Allred is the first Democratic lawmaker to release an ad responding to criticism over transgender issues, a key attack vector for Republicans in the presidential and other congressional races.
“Ted Cruz lied again, but this time about our children. I’m a dad. I’m a Christian, too,” Allred says in the new ad. “And my faith has taught me that all children are children of God. So let me be clear: I don’t want boys to play girls’ sports, or the things that Ted Cruz says… I don’t want to do something stupid like that.”
CNN has asked Allred’s camp to clarify his position more precisely, but has not received a response.
Mr. Cruz also criticized Mr. Allred for changing his tune on the southern border. While running for Congress in 2018, Allred called the border wall “racist,” and as recently as two years ago said he didn’t think the border was a “top” issue for many Texas voters. He said no, but said he wanted comprehensive immigration reform.
He is now focusing on the border in ads, vowing to fix the problem and attacking Cruz, who opposed a bipartisan immigration bill earlier this year. Earlier this year, Allred joined Republicans in a Republican-led resolution condemning “the Biden administration’s open borders policy.”
During the campaign, when the border issue was an issue of Republican victory, Mr. Cruz repeatedly accused Mr. Allred of standing in front of the same border wall that he criticized in a TV ad years ago, saying that the border have questioned Mr. Allred’s seriousness about the matter. .
In an interview with CNN, Allred defended his position, admitting that he and his party “have taken too long to respond to the rise in immigration.”
“But I would also say that the response can’t be, ‘Let’s be cruel to people and think it’s going to help.’ That’s not real border security,” he said.
Meanwhile, Allred slammed Cruz over abortion, urged senators to help send judges and justices to federal courts, overturn Roe v. Wade, and support the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 ruling. He claims he is “responsible” for what led to the verdict.
“Because of Ted Cruz, we get more government, but less freedom, and Texas women will pay the price,” the narrator says in one of Allred’s ads. There is.
While Cruz has celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision as a major victory, he has remained silent lately about his position on Texas’ abortion law, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest. Asked by CNN why he didn’t mention abortion in his stump speech after the rally in Allen, Cruz argued that abortion was not the top concern for Texas voters and shifted the topic to jobs and the border. . In another chat with reporters the next day, he said this was a matter for state leaders to decide.
Both candidates tout their bipartisanship, but Mr. Allred is less likely to join former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and former Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who heads a group called “Republicans for Allred.” He is leaning heavily toward support from prominent Republicans such as Rep. (Illinois).
Mr. Allred frequently brings up their support and mentions them by name more often than Vice President Kamala Harris. Asked by CNN about his strategy, Allred said he doesn’t think Texas voters view his race and the presidential campaign in the same light.
“I think there are some Texans who are true conservatives who believe in the rule of law, who believe in the Constitution, who believe that we should not try to overturn an election. “I don’t want to be embarrassed anymore,” he said.
Mr. Cruz finds Mr. Cheney’s endorsement laughable. “I’ve known Liz Cheney for a long time, and she’s completely lost her mind,” he told CNN when asked about her support.
Mr. Allred’s efforts to solidify his brand as a moderate are one key difference from Mr. O’Rourke’s 2018 campaign. And while Mr. O’Rourke has toured the state with large, energetic rallies, Mr. Allred has spent much of his campaign holding small, intimate events. He spent a lot of money early on on television advertising to raise his profile. In the last few weeks, Allred has started holding bigger events encouraging people to vote.
O’Rourke also refrained from negative attacks on Cruz, but Allred doesn’t hold back from punching him. Some of his ads show video of Mr. Cruz at the airport during his infamous trip to Cancun, when the deadly 2021 Texas freeze brought the state to a standstill for several days. . After returning home, Cruz said the trip was a mistake, but he has joked about it ever since.
At a campaign event with the Funky East Dallas Democrats last week, Allred slammed Cruz’s intentions as a serious congressman and poked fun at his three-times-a-week podcast, January 6, 2021 He accused Mr. Cruz of being a factor in the rebellion and beat him. About abortion.
But in his last line, Mr. Allred asked the audience watching the election day results to remember Mr. Cruz’s Cancun suitcase.
“Imagine Mr. Cruz coming out of the Capitol carrying that same little roller bag,” he said.
CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.
