Democratic Representative Colin Allred is narrowly trailing GOP incumbent Senator Ted Cruz in Texas’ U.S. Senate race, according to a new poll.
Cruz was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and is known as a staunch conservative, routinely drawing the ire of Democrats. Allred, a former professional football player who has served in the House of Representatives since 2019, had raked nearly $42 million to go up against the $40 million raised by the Republican incumbent as of July.
Polls have consistently shown Cruz leading Allred, and Cook Political Report ranks the race as “likely” to be a Republican victory in November. However, Democrats are holding out hope that they can flip the seat, which would also give them a significant boost in their bid to maintain control of the Senate.
New polling published on Friday by Emerson College/The Hill shows a relatively tight race, showing Allred down against Cruz within the survey’s margin of error. According to the poll, Cruz is ahead by 4 points garnering the support of 48 percent of those surveyed while Allred is backed by 44 percent. An additional 8 percent are undecided.
However, Allred leads by double digits among minority and young voters in Texas. Conversely, Cruz leads by double digits among white voters and voters over 50. The survey included 845 likely voters with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.3 percentage points.
Newsweek reached out to Cruz’s and Allred’s campaigns for comment via email on Saturday.
Tierney L. Cross/Brandon Bell/Getty Images
While the Emerson poll may be somewhat promising for Allred, the average by Real Clear Polling shows Allred down by about 6 points. Recent polls by University of Texas and Remington Research show Cruz ahead by 8 points and 10 points, respectively.
At the same time, another recent Texas poll by Clean and Prosperous America PAC, an environmentalist advocacy group that campaigns for Democratic Party candidates, showed the GOP senator ahead of the Democratic congressman by just 2 points—47 to 45 percent.
If Allred were to flip the Texas Senate seat from Cruz in November, he would become the first Democratic senator in the Lone Star state since 1993. Cruz won reelection in 2018 by a margin of 2.6 percent. His Democratic challenger garnered 48.3 percent of the vote compared to the Republican’s 50.9 percent.
The Texas Democrat picked up a notable endorsement from former Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who has become a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump and his GOP supporters.
“Vote for Colin Allred,” Cheney told attendees during an interview at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Friday. “We need people who are honorable public servants, and in this race that is Colin Allred, so I’ll be working on his behalf.”