Cruz vs. Allred race tightens as attack ads vie for uncommitted voters
Sen. Ted Cruz has lead over Colin Allred: new poll
In the hard-fought battle to represent Texas in the United States Senate, new polling of "likely voters" has incumbent Republican Ted Cruz with a slight lead over Democratic challenger Colin Allred. FOX 26 Political Reporter Greg Groogan has the numbers and analysis of another hard hitting political ad.
HOUSTON - In the hard fought battle to represent Texas in the United States Senate, fresh polling of "likely voters" has Republican incumbent Ted Cruz with a slight lead over Democratic challenger Colin Allred.
According to a well-regarded survey by the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, Cruz is ahead by three points, just a whisker outside the margin of error.
SUGGESTED: Ted Cruz, Colin Allred Senate race enters home stretch | Texas: The Issue Is
Analysts believe stretch run "attack ads" will likely play a critical role in persuading the 5% of voters who remain undecided.
FOX 26 has examined one such spot which features scathing criticism of Senator Cruz from the father of former Russian captive Trevor Reed.
"Senator Cruz refused to help us when everybody else in the government was," says Trevor's father Joey Reed while making the case against re-electing Cruz and narrating an attack-ad which includes his endorsement of Allred.
"Our elected officials are accountable for not only their actions, but their inactions. Ted Cruz is not here for Texas. Ted Cruz is here for Ted Cruz," says the elder Reed in the ad.
Speaking one-on-one with the Senator, FOX 26 asked Cruz to answer Joey Reed's allegation.
"Sometimes it is helpful to be publicly engaged. Sometimes it is not. In that instance, we were advised by the State Department. I was in the middle of a huge fight with Russia and Putin over the Nord Stream-2 Pipeline. I was the lead author of sanctions that had shut that pipeline down, and I was advised that my engaging publicly would be harmful to the effort and that it would end up making it harder to bring Trevor home, and so I remained quiet because I didn't want to hurt the situation. I'm thrilled that he's back," said Cruz.
Rice political analyst Mark Jones assessed both the Allred-funded attack spot and Cruz's defense.
"We know that Cruz was very much on point trying to block the Nord Stream pipeline and was a real thorn in Vladimir Putin's side, so it is credible that having Cruz front and center would not have helped Trevor Reed's case in Russia, if anything, it might have hurt it," said Jones.
FOX 26 is pursuing independent confirmation of Cruz's account.
Jones says the next 42 days will likely boil down to a media arms race with the advantage in funding currently with the incumbent.
"If national Democrats are really serious about helping Colin Allred win, they really need to get money into the state sooner rather than later to define himself positively, before Ted Cruz defines him negatively in the eyes of one quarter to a third of Texas voters who don't know much about the Congressman," said Jones.