Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred exchanged sarcastic one-liners about politics in their first and only debate Tuesday in the Texas Senate race, and both candidates agreed.
Cruz cast himself as a conservative who would “fight to keep Texas, Texas,” while Allred cast Cruz as a radical who delivered nothing for the state during his 12 years in the Senate.
“When the lights went out in the world capital of power, he went to Cancún. On January 6, when a mob stormed the Capitol, he hid a supply closet. And when the most difficult border security bill in a generation came up in the United States Senate, he withdrew it,” Allred said, repeatedly referring to Cruz’s trip to Mexico during the 2021 winter storm in Texas. “We don’t need senators like that.”
Cruz was amused by Allred's irritation.
“Congressman Allred memorized his lines well,” he said with a smile, “there is a difference between words and actions.” Cruz said Allred’s “words sound good” but don’t match his voting record.
Although Cruz has a lead in the Republican stronghold of Texas, polls show the race is close: Cruz leads by 4 points in the University of Houston Poll and by 5 points in the recent Marist College Poll.
Democrats control 51 seats in the Senate. They are almost certain to lose in deep red West Virginia and behind in recent polls in Montana. If these two seats go to the Republican Party, Democrats will face great difficulties in maintaining control of the House. Some Democrats see a tempting opportunity for an upset victory in Texas because of Cruz's polarizing image.
There is a cruise The alarm went off about the nation, warns that its victory is not certain and that it needs more resources to guarantee it.
Cruz went on the attack on energy and blamed Democrats for inflation. He was particularly excited when he attacked Allred on the issue of transgender athletes, saying that Allred supported measures that would get boys to play girls' sports.
“Congressman Allred was an NFL linebacker. It’s not fair for a man to compete against women,” Cruz said.
“I don’t support boys playing girls’ sports,” Allred responded, calling Cruz’s presentation of himself as a “protector of women and girls” “ridiculous” when he thinks it’s perfectly reasonable that if a girl is the victim of rape, her relative, A. victim of sexual abuse, she should be forced to carry and give birth to this child.
Allred used his opening comments to call himself “the most bipartisan Texan in Congress” and said he was “the opposite of Senator Cruz, the most extreme senator,” who he said was “only focused on himself.”
Allred said Cruz tried to “change” his image from a radical senator to a reasonable senator, and also tried to increase his health care and abortion benefits. He pledged to support legislation that would restore Roe v. Wade rights. Wade.
Cruz, who is staunchly anti-abortion, did not directly say whether he favored exceptions for rape and incest, while trying to soften his tone on the issue, saying Texas abortion laws should be “a decision that will be made by the state legislature.” . He said Democrats' support for a comprehensive unrestricted abortion rights measure was the true extremist position in the debate.
Cruz, asked whether he would support pardoning the rioters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, avoided saying he was in favor of prosecuting the perpetrators, as well as “the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots that have burned cities across the country ”. “
Allred, looking directly at Cruz when criticizing his objections to the certification of the 2020 election, said, “You are a threat to democracy.”