Eviscerates Ted Cruz.........

UC Berkeley law grad eviscerates Ted Cruz in Texas Senate debate

By Alec Regimbal

Rep. Colin Allred, a UC Berkeley law grad who’s running to unseat Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, met his opponent on the debate stage for the first time Tuesday, and it was a spicy affair.

Allred, a Democrat who represents Dallas and neighboring suburbs in the U.S. House of Representatives, zinged the Republican Cruz on issues including abortion, insulin prices and the two-term senator’s refusal to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election for Joe Biden.

In perhaps the most memorable moment of the night, Allred — a former NFL linebacker for the Tennessee Titans — contrasted his actions with Cruz’s when a mob of former President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, to prevent lawmakers from certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win.

“I took off my suit jacket, and I was prepared to defend the House floor from the mob,” he said. “At the same time, after [Cruz] had gone around the country lying about the election, after he’d been the architect of the attempt to overthrow that election, when that mob came, Sen. Cruz was hiding in a supply closet.”

Cruz laughed and shook his head in response to the barb, despite admitting in a 2022 book that he did, in fact, get into a supply closet with some colleagues after violence broke out.

Another uncomfortable moment for Cruz came when Allred took him to task over capping the cost of insulin, which included a jab about Cruz’s decision to vacation with his family in Cancún in 2021 as Texas residents dealt with the effects of a devastating winter storm.

“One in four Americans are rationing their insulin,” Allred said. “Do you know what rationing your insulin means? It means you’re not taking the medication you need to survive. And so we said, ‘Let’s make sure that this is affordable.’ I was willing to do it and voted for it. Sen. Cruz voted against it.”

He continued: “It’s not surprising. He’s also one of the biggest recipients of campaign donations from big pharma lobbyists in the entire United States Senate. It’s true. But this is a pattern. This is somebody who goes to the Ritz Carlton in Cancún. Do you really think he cares about inflation, and about working families?”

According to Open Secrets, Cruz received the fourth largest donation amount from pharmaceutical companies among senators in the 2016 election cycle. He has not been one of the top 20 recipients since then, Open Secrets’ website says.

Allred also excoriated Cruz for his stance on abortion, saying it doesn’t amount to being “pro-life.” Texas enacted one of the strictest abortion laws in the U.S. after the Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, a decision Cruz applauded.

“I want to be very clear to the people of Texas: I support the protections, and the restrictions, under Roe,” Allred said. “But Sen. Cruz just called himself pro-life. You’re not. You’re not pro-life. It’s not pro-life to deny women care so long that they can’t have children any more. It’s not pro-life to force a victim of rape to carry their rapist’s baby.”

Allred’s performance is sure to energize Democrats, who are facing a tough battle to maintain their thin majority in the upper house. Of the 34 Senate seats up for grabs this year, only 11 are held by Republicans. That means Democrats will need to defend seats in several battleground areas like Nevada and Pennsylvania, but they’re also hoping to pick up seats in purple states.

While Texas has been a GOP stronghold for the past few decades, Cruz, a longtime Democratic boogeyman, is seen as one of the more vulnerable Republicans up for reelection. Though Cruz is currently leading in polls by 4%, he has more to lose by agreeing to a debate and providing his opponent a statewide platform.

However, Adam Sterling, the executive director of the Berkeley Center for Law and Business at the university’s law school — and a friend of Allred’s — said Cruz and his team likely underestimated Allred.

“There’s the expectations game,” Sterling said. “Sen. Cruz is an intelligent man, and I think that his reputation has always been that he’s a strong debater. … Colin probably exceeded expectations in his performance.”

As for Allred’s chances, Sterling contrasted his platform with that of Beto O’Rourke, the former Democratic Texas congressman who lost his bid to unseat Cruz in 2018 by about 215,000 votes despite garnering national attention. Sterling said, at that time, O’Rourke seemed more focused on national politics than state politics (O’Rourke kicked off a bid for president in the 2020 presidential primary, but dropped out in 2019).

This time, Sterling said that script has been reversed. He said Allred is more focused on Texas, whereas Cruz appears to be parroting national Republican talking points — evidenced in part by his attacks against transgender people.

“I think Colin just did an incredible job of speaking to the voters directly,” Sterling said, adding that he was struck by Allred’s attacks against Cruz’s “showboating” on trips to the southern border. “Colin was more able to speak directly, he spoke directly to the camera, bringing it to individuals in Texas.”