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FORT WORTH (AP) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won reelection Tuesday, defeating U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and Democrats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 latest try at ending decades of GOP dominance in the booming state that was thrust this election year to the center of battles over immigration and abortion.<\/p>\n
Cruz, 53, secured a third term following another expensive reelection campaign, six years after only narrowly beating Beto O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rourke. This time around, Cruz implored Republicans to take his race seriously. He tried recasting himself to Texas voters as a get-things-done legislator, far from his reputation as an unapologetic firebrand with national ambitions.
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Walking out to the song \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Eye of the Tiger,” Cruz addressed his supporters Tuesday night at his watch party in Houston.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Tonight is an incredible night, a huge victory here in Texas,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Cruz said.<\/p>\n
He thanked his wife and his supporters. Cruz also thanked Allred for a hard-fought campaign and pledged to protect the freedoms and values of all Texans, including those who didn’t support him.<\/p>\n
Cruz, who emphasized the importance of law and order on the campaign trail, was flanked on stage by a prominent Democratic supporter — Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, the top prosecutor in Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 most populous county.<\/p>\n
Allred, a former NFL linebacker who would have been Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 first Black senator, carried a moderate banner while mostly keeping both Vice President Kamala Harris and progressive supporters at arm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s length. He touted the endorsements of Republicans \u00e2\u20ac\u201d including former Rep. Liz Cheney \u00e2\u20ac\u201d and ran as a champion of abortion rights in a state with one of the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strictest bans.<\/p>\n
His campaign drew criticism early on from some Democrats who grew restless with Allred\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strategy of not packing his schedule with raucous rallies or investing more in smaller corners of Texas, including cities along Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 border with Mexico.<\/p>\n
It was the latest failed attempt for Texas Democrats, who haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t won a statewide race in 30 years, the country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s longest losing streak.<\/p>\n
Despite Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 reliably red reputation, Democrats had hoped to take advantage of the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shifting demographics that include growing Hispanic and Black populations and an influx of residents from other states. Six years ago, Cruz narrowly pulled out a victory over O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Rourke by less than 3 percentage points, a loss that inspired Democrats across Texas.<\/p>\n
Four in 10 Texas voters said the economy and jobs is the top issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of more than 110,000 voters nationally, including more than 4,500 voters in Texas. About 2 in 10 Texas voters said immigration is the most pressing issue, and about 1 in 10 named abortion.<\/p>\n
Cruz, who ran for president in 2016, originally came to the Senate after a stint as Texas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 solicitor general. He launched a popular podcast called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Verdict\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in 2020 that defended then-President Donald Trump during his impeachment.<\/p>\n
Allred was a star high school athlete from Dallas who played linebacker at Baylor University in Waco before a career in the NFL and then as a civil rights attorney. He also had experience defeating a Republican incumbent, having won a U.S. House seat in Dallas in 2018 that was held for more than two decades by GOP U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FORT WORTH (AP) \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas won reelection Tuesday, defeating U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and Democrats\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 latest try at ending decades of GOP dominance in the booming state that was thrust this election year to the center of battles over immigration and abortion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":1367376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/11\/TEDCCRUZHIGHREZ-200x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1367373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-10 08:19:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2024\/11\/TEDCCRUZHIGHREZ-200x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1367373"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1367395,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1367373\/revisions\/1367395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1367376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1367373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1367373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1367373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}