2 weeks Ago
HOUSTON — One of the tightest election races for Texas voters is for the U.S. Senate.
Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Colin Allred spent the last week of early voting campaigning across the state. A political expert believes Harris County will be a large support base for one of those candidates. Our expert also believes weather could play a factor -- but not in the ways you may think.
“You can see how close this race must seem to both the congressman and the Senator,” Bob Stein, a political professor at Rice University. Stein said polls show Cruz as the lead over Allred. Between Cruz and Allred -- both campaigns are spending lots of money on ads during this election cycle.
Allred has targeted Cruz on issues such as abortion while Cruz has used ads to target Allred on the border and transgender issues. “Harris, Fort Bend [counties] will go for the congressman..
.turnout will be healthy,” Stein said. Stein said the congressman will need help from voters in both parties in North Texas counties such as Collin, Williamson and Denton.
“What you’re seeing up there is are there Republicans that could vote for the Congressman, are there Republicans who just don’t like Ted Cruz think he’s going to win, and don’t vote for him," he said. RELATED: Election 2024 coverage will stream live on KHOU 11+ But recent polling from the University of Houston finds Texas is likely to lean Republican in the top two races. So far, Stein estimates around 65 percent of Texans have voted early or voted by mail.
With Election Day expected to be rainy, Stein is unsure who will gain an edge. “It’s been a long time since we had bad weather on election day, the traditional explanation for bad weather and its impact on votes, it suppresses the democratic vote, it’s not frequent, it isn’t the college-educated vote, but that’s the old age [party],” Stein said. Allred is expected to be in Dallas on Monday while Cruz will have a rally in Cypress with Harris County leaders, including District Attorney Kim Ogg.
KHOU 11’s Len Cannon sat down with both Cruz and Allred to talk about their policies, their politics, the campaign and each other. Here's his conversation with Allred . And here's his conversation with Cruz .
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