Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Colin Allred hammered each other for an hour in the sole debate in the 2024 race for Texas' U.S. Senate seat. Neither managed to land a knock-out blow, but both made their fair share of questionable charges.
Abortion
Allred has run multiple ads over the course of the campaign attacking Cruz's staunch record of opposition to abortion rights and his past defense of Texas' laws limiting access to abortion. On the debate stage, Allred reiterated his claim that Cruz had called Texas' abortion ban, without exceptions for rape or incest, "perfectly reasonable." That's TRUE. Cruz made just such a statement in a 2021 Senate committee hearing.
"Look into the camera and talk to Amanda Zurawski, who's watching right now, and explain to her why it's perfectly reasonable that because she had a complication in her pregnancy and was denied care so long that she may never be able to have children of her own, or to the 26,000 Texas women who've been forced to give birth to their rapists' child under this law that you called ‘perfectly reasonable,'" Allred said. "It's not."
Cruz counter-attacked by noting, CORRECTLY, that Allred had opposed Texas' law requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortions. "He [Allred] has rejected Texas' law that gives parents the right to be notified and consent," Cruz said.
On the other hand, Cruz also claimed that the decision of whether to support or oppose abortion was entirely up to Texas voters. "Under our constitution, the way we resolve questions like that, questions on which we have real and genuine disagreements is at the ballot box, is voting and that's why the state of the law now is that the Legislature in Austin sets the laws in Texas," Cruz said.
That characterization was, at best, MISLEADING. Republicans have effectively gerrymandered the state to make it nearly impossible for Democrats to elect a majority of lawmakers. In addition, there is no direct avenue for voters to hold a constitutional referendum in Texas protecting the right to an abortion, as in other states — such as Ohio or Kansas. Polls show that a majority of Texans believe in less restrictive abortion laws.
Economy
Cruz attacked Allred repeatedly on the issue of inflation, seeking to link him to the accelerating costs of living during the Biden-Harris administration. The causes of inflation are a good deal more complicated than Cruz claimed. At least some of them stem from steps taken as early as the CARES Act of 2020, signed by then-President Trump and designed to combat the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cruz specifically claimed that illegal immigration is driving inflation, which has been a talking point of former President Trump's. "[N]othing is driving up housing costs as powerfully as the 11 and a half million illegal immigrants that Congressman Allred and Kamala Harris have let in with their open borders, and they want to keep letting in," Cruz said.
That's FALSE. According to a recent analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, immigration is having relatively little effect on inflation.
Allred claimed, CORRECTLY, that Cruz had opposed expanding the child tax credit, and that he himself had voted to lower the cost of insulin for diabetes care, as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
However, Allred STRETCHED THE TRUTH when he noted he had opposed the Biden administration's pause on LNG exports by writing an op-ed to that effect that ran in the Houston Chronicle. Cruz accurately hit Allred for opposing a Republican House bill that would have rolled back the ban.
"Inflation has been in particular exacerbated by Kamala Harris and Colin Allred's war on energy and oil and gas in Texas," Cruz said "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris put executive orders in place to hurt energy, and Colin Allred has voted against Texas oil and gas and energy over and over again."
Border security and immigration
Some of the harshest jabs of the night came over border security and immigration policy, and each candidate made his share of questionable claims. Cruz, for example, claimed that Allred had done nothing to try to secure the border during his six years in the House. "Every time there's a serious measure in the House to secure the border, Colin Allred votes no," Cruz said.
That's FALSE. It ignores Allred's vote for the Border Act of 2024, which Cruz himself opposed. "When the toughest border security bill in a generation came up for vote in the United States Senate, he took it down," Allred said. "We had a bill for $20 billion, for a thousand new border patrol agents, for more immigration judges, more asylum officers to help us deal with the backlog. I wanted to make sure we passed that."
On the flip side, Allred claimed Cruz himself had done nothing during his 12 years in the Senate to secure the border. "Senator Cruz has had forever, and he's done nothing to solve this problem," Allred said. "Why would we believe that he will with six more years?"
That's MISLEADING. Cruz has compiled a long record of votes in favor of stricter border controls. But having spent roughly half his time in the Senate in the minority, not to mention having had Democrats in the White House for eight of his nearly 12 years, he has had a limited capacity to get his priorities passed.
LGBTQ rights
One of Cruz's major lines of attack in his commercials has been to claim that Allred's support for LGBTQ rights, and particularly equal rights for transgender individuals, amounts to allowing biological males to participate in women's and girls' sports. He repeated that attack several times in the debate.
"He has come out for men playing in women’s sports, for boys playing in girls’ sports," Cruz said. "There was a bill. It was a very simple bill. It was narrowly defined. It was protecting women and girls' sports. He voted no."
It's TRUE Allred opposed a Republican House bill, officially titled the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023, which explicitly prohibited individuals who were born male to participate in women's or girls' sports. Cruz also said, accurately, that Allred had cosponsored a piece of legislation known as the Transgender Bill of Rights, which would have explicitly extended the 1964 Civil Rights Act to cover transgender individuals.
Cruz also sought to underscore his argument by claiming, FALSELY, that biological males had competed as women in Olympic boxing this past summer.
Allred sought to rebut Cruz's characterization of his vote. “I don’t support boys playing girls' sports," Allred said. "What I think is that folks should not be discriminated against, and what Senator Cruz should try to explain to you is why he thinks they should.”
Jan. 6
Allred hit Cruz hard over his behavior during the Jan. 6 insurrection, countering Cruz's claims that he is the stronger candidate when it comes to supporting law enforcement and public safety.
"You can’t be for the mob on January 6, and for the officers, you can’t. And it’s not funny, because you’re a threat to democracy," Allred said. "I was on the House floor when we went through the votes. I remember when you objected to the results in Arizona."
It's TRUE that Cruz did object to the certification of election results from Arizona, which was criticized at the time as encouraging the rioters.
"I was prepared to defend the House floor from the mob at the same time, after he’d [Trump] gone around the country lying about the election, after he’d been the architect of the attempt to overthrow that election," Allred said. "When that mob came, Senator Cruz was hiding in a supply closet." That's also TRUE. Cruz has admitted, in a 2022 book, to hiding briefly in a supply closet during the insurrection.
Cruz countered by pointing to Allred's opposition to legislation that he claimed would make it harder for undocumented immigrants to vote, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act. That's also TRUE. Allred did vote against the SAVE Act. "Congressman Allred, votes no to protecting our elections and ensuring that people don’t vote illegally," Cruz said. “That is a threat to democracy."
