Election 2024: Race between Ted Cruz, Colin Allred heats up
AUSTIN, Texas - The race is heating up between Senator Ted Cruz and Colin Allred ahead of election day.
It is a tight race and considered very important for democrats when looking at the electoral map.
"For this race, it is about immigration. It's about reproductive rights. It's also about personality," St. Edward’s University Political Science Professor Brian Smith, Ph. D.
Allred, the democratic challenger, is fighting to unseat Cruz.
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"Ted Cruz is our problem here in Texas because he's been cutting and trying to cut Medicare and Social Security. He's been the one who's been preventing us from securing the border," U.S. Representative Colin Allred said.
"We have seen over 11.5 million illegal immigrants cross into this country since Joe Biden and Kamala Harris came into office. It is an invasion. It is the worst in the history of this country," U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said.
This is a battle shaping up similarly to the last election cycle.
"He’s an incumbent, but he’s not polling incumbent numbers," Smith said.
A new poll shows a tightening race for the Texas U.S. Senate seat with Cruz leading Allred by just over one percentage point. In 2018, Cruz beat Beto O’Rourke by less than three percentage points.
"Beto O'Rourke threw everything at them, couldn't pull it off. Allred's trying the same tactic," Smith said.
Allred is a former NFL player and a current House Representative. Although he’s fighting a battle of name recognition, analysts said it may play in his favor.
"Allred’s been able to move to the center a lot more than Beto. O'Rourke had a very liberal voting record in Congress, came out with very, very progressive policies, and then had to try to move to the center, which he really couldn't do because he was always already framed as a far-left candidate by Cruz. Allred’s been moving around the spectrum a lot more and he's been able to do that because we don't know as much about him," Smith said.
Smith said a recent move may have hindered Allred.
"He really did attach himself to the vice president at the Houston rally. And we'll see if that has an impact or not," Smith said.
Former President Donald Trump is backing Cruz.
"What's going to determine it? Turnout. Donald Trump," Smith said.
Democrats see this race as one of their best opportunities to flip a seat in the U.S. Senate.
"If they're able to win this, this might give them a 50/50 tie in the Senate and then, if the Democrats get elected, Tim Walz is our tie-breaking vote. But if the Democrats are unable to pick up Texas, there's really no pathway for them to get to the Senate majority unless we see a real groundswell in a lot of other states," Smith said.
The Democratic Party hasn’t won a statewide race in the Lonestar state since 1994.