The Daily Populous Saturday September 21st, 2024 night edition
Authored by newsweek.com and submitted by Coffee_n_wifi

Ted Cruz is losing to Colin Allred for the first time in the U.S. Senate race, according to new polling.

The survey, conducted by Morning Consult between September 9 and 18, showed Allred one point ahead of Cruz, on 45 percent to his 44 percent among 2,716 likely voters. His lead was within the poll's margin of error of +/-2 percentage points.

Cruz, the incumbent Texas Senator, has had a consistent but narrowing lead over his Democratic challenger in previous polls.

"For the first time in this race, a new poll has us leading Ted Cruz by 1 point. I don't know about y'all but I'm fired up and ready to WIN! We've got 47 days, let's do this Texas," Allred said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Ted Cruz speaking in Washington, D.C., in July, and Colin Allred at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. A new poll shows that Cruz is losing to Allred in the Senate race for... Ted Cruz speaking in Washington, D.C., in July, and Colin Allred at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. A new poll shows that Cruz is losing to Allred in the Senate race for the first time. More Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Paul Sancya/AP Images

Newsweek has contacted the Cruz campaign for comment via email.

Despite Allred's small lead, the Cook Political Report still classifies the Senate race in Texas as a likely Republican seat.

The previous poll conducted by Morning Consult found that Cruz was 5 points ahead, on 47 percent to Allred's 42 percent, among 2,940 likely voters. The poll was conducted between August 30 and September 8.

Read more Why Latino women are moving back to Kamala Harris: pollster Why Latino women are moving back to Kamala Harris: pollster

Meanwhile, a poll conducted by YouGov and the University of Texas between August 23 and 31 found that Cruz was 8 points ahead among 1,200 registered voters.

Another poll, conducted by ActiVote between August 13 and 29 among 400 likely voters, put Cruz 10 points ahead. Other surveys have shown Cruz with a smaller lead of between 2 and 4 points.

RealClearPolitics' polling tracker puts Cruz on average 6 points ahead.

Texas has selected a Republican to represent them in the Senate every year since 1990.

In 2018, Cruz narrowly defeated Beto O'Rourke by 214,921 votes out of more than 8.3 million cast.

Nonetheless, some Republicans are still worried about how close the polls have been in this race so far.

"What the hell is wrong with the Senate race in Texas ? I think i know ...and i think i know his name ... time to get some real professionals in to save @tedcruz," Donald Trump's campaign manager, Chris LaCivita, wrote in a cryptic post on X last week.

Meanwhile, Cruz suffered a blow on Monday when former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney told voters she'd made a trip to Dallas to support Allred.

"I've known Ted Cruz for 20 years. And it's been clear—everybody who knows Ted Cruz, and I'm sure most of you in this room know Ted Cruz, nobody thinks Ted Cruz is a man of great honor," Cheney said.

"What Ted Cruz did after the 2020 election makes him clearly unfit for office. Ted Cruz, knowing—knowing that it was unconstitutional, knowing that Joe Biden had won the election, knowing that the election had been certified in every one of our states and that a legitimate slate of electors—that there were no contested slates of electors that were legitimate, knowing that, Ted Cruz put in place a proposal to reject many of those votes, to essentially reject the votes of millions of Americans, what would have been overturning the election. And he did that to please Donald Trump," she continued, referring to Cruz's efforts to push Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen from the former president.

"These jobs really matter, and in this race, I want to do everything I can to help ensure that the people of Texas elect Collin Allred," Cheney added. Cheney has also endorsed Kamala Harris for president.

Monique Alcala, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, previously told The Hill that that "enthusiasm is high" among Democrats for Allred in the state.

Perhaps reflecting the tightening race, Cruz on Friday confirmed he would face Allred in a debate next month — the first time the nominees will face off before the election. The debate is scheduled for Oct. 15 and is to be hosted by WFAA, the Dallas ABC affiliate.

Update 9/20/24 12:00 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with new information.

Follow Newsweek's live blog for the latest updates on the election and Mark Robinson's scandal in North Carolina.

Sammy_Bubba on September 20th, 2024 at 11:40 UTC »

Texan here - Cruz is such a uniquely awful person/politician with no real constituency other than the R next to his name. Allred is hammering him with ads on the border and the whole “Cancun Ted” thing but I’m skeptical the Texas democrats have the infrastructure to pull this off. Fingers crossed.

reftheloop on September 20th, 2024 at 11:07 UTC »

Remember Ted Cruz left Texas during the winter outages. That should be a running ad.

Scary_Terry_25 on September 20th, 2024 at 10:56 UTC »

I really tread lightly on Morning Consult. Either they’re extremely close or extremely off. Never in between