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Texas Senate race is heating up
Early voting ends on Friday, and candidates are trying to make every second count leading up to Election Day.
Democrats believe the 2024 contest between Ted Cruz and Colin Allred could break a decades-long losing streak in the Lone Star State.
A Democrat has not represented Texas in the US Senate since 1993.
Recent election results show Travis County is a Democratic stronghold for United States Senate hopefuls and the margin of victory has continued to grow over the past decade.
Fifty-nine percent of Travis County voters chose Paul Sadler during the 2012 Senate contest between him and Ted Cruz.
That number stayed around 55 percent in 2014 when David Alameel carried Travis County in a losing effort against Republican John Cornyn.
Since then, the number has only grown.
Beto O'Rourke gathered 74 percent of Travis County voters in 2018 when he tried to unseat Cruz.
In the 2020 contest between Cornyn and Democratic challenger Mary Hegar, the margin of victory fell slightly with Hegar collecting 68 percent of the vote to Cornyn's 29 percent.
Elsewhere in Central Texas, results have varied for Senate hopefuls.
Cruz claimed a nine-point victory in Hays County in 2012 with 51 percent of the vote, but only managed 42 percent of the vote in 2018, losing to O'Rourke by 15 points.
Cornyn saw a similar shift in 2020 when Hegar claimed a 6 point victory with 51 percent of the vote.
Cornyn won in Hays County by 18 points over Alameel in 2014.
(Xinhua/Dan Tian via Getty Images)
A majority of voters continue to support the Republican candidates in Williamson County.
Since 2012, the county has only went to the Democrats one time. O'Rourke collected 51 percent of the county's votes in a two percent victory over Cruz. Cruz won Williamson County in 2012 by 20 points with 57 percent of the vote.
Cornyn would reclaim Williamson County for Republicans in 2020, gathering 50 percent of the votes en route to a three-point victory over Hegar.
Cornyn won the county by almost 30 points in 2014 with 62 percent of the vote.
Despite recent gains by Democrats in Hays and Williamson counties and extending their hold in Travis County, no Democrat has won a statewide Texas election since 1994.