Andrew Schneider / Houston Public Media
Republican Senator Ted Cruz declared victory in opposition to his Democratic challenger, Dallas Congressman Colin Allred, to win a 3rd time period as Texas’s junior senator. Preliminary outcomes compiled by the Texas Secretary of State’s Workplace confirmed Cruz main Allred by 55.7% to 42.3% statewide on the time Allred conceded the race.
“Tonight is an unbelievable evening; an enormous victory right here in Texas,” Cruz mentioned as he declared victory on the Marriott Marquis Houston. “Chuck Schumer tried to purchase this Senate seat prefer it was a chunk of Manhattan actual property. However hey realized what we’ve at all times recognized, that Texas isn’t on the market, and Texans can’t be purchased.”
Cruz and Allred collectively raised greater than $166 million. Cruz raised greater than $86.7 million, together with funds raised earlier than Allred entered the race, whereas Allred raised greater than $80 million. That made it the most costly congressional contest within the nation throughout the 2024 cycle. It additionally demolished the earlier report for a Texas congressional contest set six years in the past, when Cruz and his then-opponent, Congressman Beto O’Rourke, collectively raised about $124 million.
Cruz poured a lot of his warfare chest into an promoting marketing campaign that sought to color Allred as too liberal for Texas. He aimed to hyperlink Allred to the immigration and border safety insurance policies of the Biden administration, despite the fact that Allred was certainly one of a handful of Democratic Home members who signed onto a Republican decision condemning these insurance policies. He additionally closely criticized Allred for opposing Republican measures to bar transgender athletes from taking part in class sports activities.
Allred spent a lot of his marketing campaign hammering Cruz’s report of opposition to abortion and reproductive rights, echoing Vice President Kamala Harris’s marketing campaign in opposition to former President Donald Trump. That assault line was on stark show the next-to-last Friday of the race, when Allred took the stage at Shell Power Stadium forward of Harris at her Houston marketing campaign rally. Allred additionally attacked Cruz’s report on the border, claiming Cruz had finished nothing to safe it in his 12 years within the Senate, and he hit Cruz over his flight from the state throughout Winter Storm Uri and his actions throughout the January 6 revolt.
“, it shouldn’t be outstanding to must admit defeat, however in right now’s politics, it’s turning into rarer and rarer,” Allred mentioned at his personal watch get together in Dallas. “I used to be impressed to run partly due to what I noticed on Jan. 6, what occurred when individuals lie a few free and honest election as a result of they weren’t proud of the consequence.”
In the long run, it was Cruz’s messaging on the border and transgender points that gained over extra voters than Allred’s on abortion and reproductive rights.
Cruz will return to a Senate nonetheless within the minority/that has flipped to Republican management. (If the latter: The shift places him in line for a plum committee task – the chairmanship of the Commerce, Science & Transportation Committee, of which he was beforehand the rating member.) He’ll even be positioned as one of many prime Senate voices opposing President-elect Harris/supporting President-elect Trump.
“Once I return to the Senate, I carry with me not only a victory however a mandate, a mandate from the individuals of Texas,” Cruz mentioned. “First, we should safe the border. Not with empty guarantees, however with concrete and metal and legislation and order and with the unshakeable resolve [of] understanding we’re defending these we love.”
Further reporting contributed by KERA’s Penelope Rivera.
