Allred focuses on abortion rights, Cruz on conservative values in North Texas appearances

U.S. Senate candidates held dueling North Texas rallies this weekend as the Nov. 5 election enters its final stretch.
On Saturday, the eve of the two-year anniversary of the Texas abortion ban, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred held a “Women for Allred” rally at Gilley’s Dallas. Standing with women who said they had to leave Texas to receive life-saving abortions, he pledged to protect reproductive rights that have been opposed by Cruz.
“If you do this to Texas women, if you are singularly responsible in a way that almost no other Texan can claim to be because you put the judges on the court who took this right away and because you helped elect the legislators who passed these laws at the state level … then you should lose your job,” Allred said to about 850 people at Gilley’s.
At his Friday night gathering, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz told nearly 550 people at the LSA Burger Company in The Colony that America is at risk and Democrats, including Allred, couldn’t be trusted.
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“Colin Allred has been an extremely liberal member of Congress,” Cruz said, adding that Allred “voted 100% with Nancy Pelosi” during his first term and supports “open borders.”
“Those are not the values of Texans,” Cruz said.
Allred and Cruz campaigned in North Texas just days after Democrats ended their national convention in Chicago, where Vice President Kamala Harris accepted the party’s presidential nomination in a race that’s now too close to call.
North Texas is critical to both candidates. Cruz needs to rally conservatives in suburban areas where Republicans are dominant, while Allred needs a heavy turnout in Dallas County, a Democratic stronghold. Both hope to be competitive in suburban areas where neither party is dominant.
Allred has made reproductive rights the centerpiece of his campaign against Cruz.
Saturday’s rally featured several women who sued Texas over the state’s strict abortion ban, which does not include exceptions for rape or incest but allows abortions if a woman’s life is endangered or there is risk of serious injury.
Their lawsuit argued doctors routinely refuse medically necessary abortions for fear of running afoul of the state ban.
“I was forced to flee the state terrified and heartbroken. Ted Cruz is proud of this. He worked to get us here,” said Taylor Edwards, one of the plaintiffs. “We deserve the freedom to access the health care we need and to get it close to home from the doctors and medical teams that we trust. Instead, Ted Cruz criminalized us.”
“I am not a criminal,” she continued. “I’m a mother who made the best decision she could.”
In 2023 Dr. Austin Dennard, a Dallas OB-GYN and plaintiff, also traveled out of state for an abortion after learning her fetus had a severe, fatal condition.
“I remember looking up at that ultrasound screen in disbelief, grieving a child that my family and I were so excited to welcome, then coming to the realization that I would have to flee my own state to receive the care,” Dennard said. ” I’m a sixth generation Texan. This is my state. This is my home.”
Kate Cox, who brought her own suit against Texas, also spoke at Saturday’s rally.
Allred told the crowd that as senator he would fight for their rights in a bipartisan fashion.
“I will be a senator for every single Texan, whether you vote for me or not, whether we agree or not,” he said.
Allred has criticized Cruz, saying the senator refuses to discuss his personal views on abortion.
Cruz told reporters Friday that he supported the 2022 Supreme Court decision to leave the question of abortion rights to states.
“You wouldn’t expect California to have the same laws as Alabama. You wouldn’t expect Texas to have the same laws as New York,” Cruz said. “That reflects democratic values. I think that’s the right way to decide it.”
When pressed on his views of Texas abortion restrictions and whether their should be exceptions for rape or incest, Cruz retreated to his original answer.
“That’s a question the state Legislature is going to have to decide at the state level,” he said. “I believe it’s going to be up to the voters, and the voters are going to make that determination.”
Cruz said he does not support a national ban on abortion and insisted Allred is lying about his record.
“There’s not a Republican that I know of in the Senate who’s ever introduced a national ban. That’s a totally made up claim that he repeats every day,” Cruz said. “Why does he do that? He supports unlimited abortion up to and including the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy. That’s an extreme position.”
In 2021 Cruz and other senators introduced the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act. The legislation would have made abortions illegal 20 weeks of pregnancy, “a point at which there is significant scientific evidence that abortion inflicts tremendous pain on the unborn.”
Allred’s campaign said Cruz’s statement about his abortion record is false.
Democrats have offered a bill, which Allred has supported, to bar prohibitions on abortion before fetal viability, the point at which a fetus can survive outside the uterus, generally at 23 to 24 weeks gestation.
It also would protect post-viability abortion when “in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.”
Allred did not address reporters after his Saturday rally.
At the event in The Colony, Cruz urged voters to reject Allred, saying he supports failed policies of the Biden administration
“There is no precedent in our nation’s history for what’s happening with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” he said. “Every single policy for the last four years has been a disaster for the people of Texas.”
“We see the disaster of the economy,” Cruz added. “We see crime across this country as radical Democrats try to undermine and defund the police, and then we see what’s happening at our southern border.”
The Friday rally included numerous state lawmakers who urged the crowd to “keep Texas, Texas.”
Rally participants agreed.
“It’s important to reelect Cruz because of his conservative record,” said Peggy Borchert of Fort Worth. “We need to stick with what we believe in.”
At a news conference after the rally, Cruz said Allred was too liberal for Texas.
“He’s voted repeatedly and in favor of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ agenda, attacking energy and Texas oil and gas jobs,” Cruz said. “In contrast, my record for 12 years has been fighting every day for 30 million Texans, fighting for jobs, fighting for freedom and security.”
Cruz said national Democrats have targeted him for defeat.
“They are coming after me,” he told supporters. “Let me tell you, my biggest challenge in this race is complacency.”