In polling of registered voters that was conducted by Emerson College and completed January 15, two leading Democratic candidates in the unfolding race for the Senate seat currently occupied by Ted Cruz (R-Texas) come very close to outright leads against the infamous Republican.
The Democrats include Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez, currently a Congressman and a state legislator, respectively. Whoever eventually wins the primary face-off between them, it looks like the Democrat facing Cruz this very November will have a shot. Against Allred, Cruz got 41.9 percent of the support, while the Democrat had 40.1 percent, placing them nearly two percentage points apart. With Gutierrez, Cruz’s leading margin was less than a percentage point, finishing with 41 percent against 40.4 percent for the Democrat. The difference between results when considering Allred and Gutierrez doesn’t appear large enough to draw a conclusive assertion comparing the strength of their candidacies.
Cruz, meanwhile, recently endorsed Donald Trump in the presidential race also taking place this year, although such is in character for the Texas Senator at this point. Though he once ran directly against Trump in a GOP presidential primary, Cruz turned around four years later and helped advance baseless suspicion about the 2020 presidential election’s results, furthering efforts in Congress to block the certification of electoral votes legitimately won by Joe Biden. Cruz operated on misrepresentations about the handling of those results before Congress’ consideration. In fact, extensive investigations into the conducting of that presidential election were completed across a series of levels of state and federal government, consistently upholding the idea by the time of Cruz’s theatrical hand-wringing about supposedly possible problems that the results were legitimate.
Democrats are generally considered to have a tough map of Senate races this year, with the party expected to defend seats it holds in a slew of close or GOP-leaning states like Montana and Ohio. Cruz, meanwhile, has also faced criticism for evident focus on partisan ambitions like his podcast above the real-world needs of the people of his state.
