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DALLAS — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, sparred Tuesday over immigration, abortion and transgender rights in a feisty debate that’s anticipated to be the one onstage face-off between the 2 candidates forward of the Nov. 5 election.

All through the one-hour debate, Cruz forged Allred as “radical and excessive,” repeatedly urging the viewers to think about Allred’s voting report over his efforts to painting himself as a average. He sought to tie Allred to Vice President Kamala Harris, alleging the 2 “voted in favor of open borders time and again” and had been each liable for fueling a surge in inflation below the Biden administration.

“We’re doing an terrible lot proper within the state of Texas,” Cruz opened the controversy. “Colin Allred needs to alter that. I need to maintain Texas, Texas.”

Allred countered by attacking Cruz as a partisan bomb-thrower with few legislative accomplishments to indicate for his practically 12 years in workplace. He blasted Cruz for serving to spike a bipartisan border package deal earlier this 12 months and stated the GOP senator was “solely targeted on himself,” invoking Cruz’s journey to Cancún in 2021 as Texas was paralyzed by a historic winter storm.

“He’s by no means there for us once we want him,” Allred stated. “When the lights went out within the power capital of the world, he went to Cancún. When a mob was storming the Capitol, he was hiding in a provide closet. And when the hardest border safety invoice in a era got here up in the US Senate, he took it down.”

The controversy, held at WFAA-TV’s studio in downtown Dallas, proved combative from begin to end, with Cruz and Allred buying and selling barbs on practically each subject that got here up. In his opening assertion, Allred known as Cruz “perhaps probably the most excessive” member of the Senate within the final 30 years. Cruz closed with the message that Allred “needs to destroy what we have got in Texas as a result of he shares Nancy Pelosi and Kamala Harris’ values.”

The controversy started with a concentrate on Texas’ abortion ban, which doesn’t exempt instances of rape and incest. Allred has made restoring abortion entry a key a part of his marketing campaign, whereas Cruz has largely prevented the difficulty. Pressed Tuesday on the place he stands on the query of rape and incest exceptions, Cruz stated the matter must be settled on the state stage and declined to stake out a place. He went on to criticize Allred for pinning the difficulty on him in his TV adverts.

“, Congressman Allred is operating all types of adverts saying that I made this determination,” Cruz stated. “I don’t serve within the state Legislature. I’m not the governor.”

Allred has leaned into the state abortion ban within the homestretch of the election, operating adverts that spotlight the tales of ladies who had been pressured to go away the state after being denied emergency medical take care of being pregnant problems. He introduced up the difficulty once more Tuesday night, disputing Cruz’s characterization of himself as “pro-life.”

“You’re not pro-life,” Allred stated, turning to handle Cruz. “It’s not pro-life to disclaim girls care so lengthy that they’ll’t have youngsters anymore. It’s not pro-life to power a sufferer of rape to hold their rapist’s child. … Perceive that when Ted Cruz says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t imply yours.”

Allred was placed on the defensive later when he was requested a few sequence of adverts run by Cruz and his allies accusing the Dallas Democrat of supporting laws that will enable males to make use of girls’s restrooms and boys to play in ladies’ sports activities.

The adverts cite Allred’s vote towards the Safety of Girls and Ladies in Sports activities Act of 2023, a GOP invoice that will lower off federal funds for athletic applications that enable males, “primarily based solely on an individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at delivery,” to compete in girls’s or ladies’ sports activities.

Allred characterised the assaults as a “Hail Mary” and a “determined” try to deflect from Cruz’s stance on abortion, calling it “laughable” for the GOP senator to say he needs to guard girls.

“What I believe is that people shouldn’t be discriminated towards,” Allred stated. “What Senator Cruz ought to attempt to clarify to you is why he thinks they need to.”

Cruz dug into Allred for supporting a 2021 invoice known as the Equality Act, which might have barred gender discrimination in public locations, together with primarily based on if an individual is transgender. He additionally blasted Allred for lately signing onto a letter, together with dozens of different Home Democrats, that urged GOP lawmakers to strike from an annual protection coverage invoice provisions that embrace “limiting medically obligatory take care of transgender service members” and limiting using pleasure flags on bases.

“ what he argued for? Navy bases ought to have drag exhibits and may be capable of fly a transgender flag above it,” Cruz stated. “Name me old style — I believe the one flag that ought to fly above our navy base must be the American flag.”

Cruz additionally confronted questions on the debate over his feedback relating to the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Cruz at first known as the occasions a “violent terrorist assault,” earlier than strolling again the remark, calling it “sloppy” and “frankly dumb.” Cruz, requested about his altering stance, turned the difficulty round on Allred.

“Congressman Allred is comfortable to speak about those that dedicated acts of violence on Jan. 6, however you don’t hear him speaking concerning the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots that burned cities throughout this nation,” Cruz stated, referring to protests within the wake of George Floyd’s demise by the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. “For those who commit an act of violence, you must go to jail, and there must be no political favoritism in that regard.”

Allred sought to refocus the dialogue on Cruz’s function surrounding certification of the 2020 election, by which he urged colleagues to object to the certification of ends in some states and known as for a 10-day audit to probe unsubstantiated voter fraud claims within the disputed states. Allred stated Cruz was “a menace to democracy” and recalled the harrowing occasions of the day, when members of Congress had been advised to “look below our toes for fuel masks.”

Each candidates have portrayed themselves as moderates prepared to work throughout the aisle, every touting crossover help from politicians within the opposing social gathering. Allred’s GOP supporters embrace former U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, each of whom are amongst their social gathering’s main critics of former President Donald Trump. Cruz, in the meantime, has garnered the endorsement of Harris County District Lawyer Kim Ogg, who was defeated within the Democratic major earlier this 12 months. Ogg is probably the most outstanding member of the “Democrats for Cruz” coalition assembled by the GOP senator to melt his fame as a partisan bomb-thrower.

Cruz likened Allred’s solutions to Harris and his voting report to that of former U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In response, Allred accused Cruz of creating a “latest transition to attempting to be somebody who needs to really get issues accomplished.”

Allred famous that he’s a previous recipient of the Jefferson-Hamilton Award for bipartisanship from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which Cruz famous has endorsed him within the Senate race.

After the controversy, Glen Whitley, a Republican and former Tarrant County choose who lately introduced his help for Allred, stated Cruz’s strategy to the 2020 election was a part of why he’s supporting the Democratic nominee. He argued that Allred carried out particularly properly on the subject of Jan. 6, and on immigration.

“It is a heck of a factor if you see the Democrat successful the dialogue on the border over a Republican,” Whitley stated.

Cruz strategist Sam Cooper stated his candidate “pushed ahead a constructive imaginative and prescient for the state of Texas,” citing Cruz’s arguments in favor of a restricted regulatory setting for oil and fuel and different industries, and his “report of bringing jobs” to the state.

“Congressman Allred is Kamala Harris. Their report isn’t any completely different,” Cooper stated. “When the congressman was pressed on his report, time and time once more he refused to reply.”

Most up-to-date polling has proven Cruz main Allred by round 3 to five share factors, although just a few surveys have discovered the race to be even tighter. Allred is hoping to shut the hole within the last weeks after marketing campaign finance studies confirmed he had outpaced Cruz in fundraising over the previous couple of months.