U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is closing in on Sen. Ted Cruz, as a new poll shows the senator leading Allred by just three points.
The poll, conducted by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University, shows that about 57% of likely voters said they would vote for Cruz, while 44% said they would vote for Allred. About 3% said they would support the Libertarian candidate and 6% said they were undecided.
This last poll mirrors a Manhattan Institute poll that also found the gap between the two candidates to be 3 points.
This means that Allred is rapidly closing the gap with Cruz. A June poll by the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin showed Cruz leading Allred by 11 points, 45 percent to 34 percent, with 14 percent saying they were still undecided.
“Earlier in the year, especially before Allred secured the Democratic nomination in the March primary, he was more of an unknown quantity,” said Michael O. Adams of the TSU. “As a congressman from Dallas, he wasn’t well-known in the rest of the state, but as a result of winning the primary and months of campaigning and advertising, his name ID has increased, and support has nudged up by five points.”
From the beginning of his campaign, Allred has positioned himself as a centrist who can work with both Democrats and Republicans. He said he has opposed some of President Joe Biden’s policies, including those regarding the border.
Cruz, since nearly losing to Beto O’Rourke in 2018, has also seen an immediate danger in Alrred’s challenge and has presented himself as more moderate than he has in the past.
Back in March, Cruz warned donors that this could be a tougher reelection campaign than the one he faced in 2018.
“I will say, my race here in Texas is a battleground race,” Cruz said in February. “My last race I won by less than three points because I’m the Democrats’ top target.”
No Democrat has won statewide office in Texas since the 1990s, but the party sees that Cruz is deeply vulnerable this year, and they remain hopeful that Alred can unseat him.
