For first time, TX Senate candidate Colin Allred leads Ted Cruz in new poll. By how much?
A new poll puts U.S. Rep. Colin Allred up by one point over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, as the candidates bid to represent Texas on Capitol Hill.
Several polls in recent weeks have shown a tight race between Allred, a Dallas Democrat, and Cruz, a Republican who has served as one of the state’s two senators since 2013. But the latest poll from Morning Consult, which describes itself as a “global decision intelligence company,” is the first to have Allred ahead, according to Allred’s campaign and a roundup of polls from 538.
Forty-five percent of likely voters said they support Allred and 44% said they support Cruz. Eight percent didn’t know or didn’t have an opinion, and 3% said they’d vote for someone else.
The poll of 2,716 likely voters was conducted over Sept. 9-18 and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
“For the first time in this race, a new poll has us leading Ted Cruz by 1 point,” Allred said in a Thursday social media post. “I don’t know about y’all but I’m fired up and ready to WIN!”
Cruz’s campaign declined to comment.
Other polls have had Cruz in the lead in a state that hasn’t elected Democrat statewide in about three decades.
A late-August poll from the Texas Politics Project at The University of Texas at Austin had Cruz up by eight percentage points. Recent polls from the A University of Houston Hobby School and Texas Southern University Jordan-Leland School have had Cruz ahead by about 2 points. A Morning Consult poll conducted between Aug. 30 and Sept. 8 had Cruz ahead by five points.
This election cycle, Cruz has argued Allred is too radical for Texas, and Allred has worked to stress bipartisanship. The two are scheduled to debate each other for the first time on Oct. 15.
“Congressman Allred has built a campaign to win and Cancun Cruz is more vulnerable than ever,” Allred campaign spokesperson Josh Stewart said in a written statement. “His policies hurt Texans, whether it’s his extreme abortion ban or his tax cuts for billionaires. This November, Texans are finally going to get a Senator they don’t have to be embarrassed by.”
