Recent polling done by the University of Texas at Tyler found Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) tied in a potential match-up this year between the two of them over Cruz’s Senate seat. The polling was completed February 26.
Both Cruz and Allred received 41 percent of the support among general respondents. Allred led slightly among independents, but the share in that subgroup saying they weren’t sure who they’d support was very large, passing one-third of their total number. Allred led more comfortably among Hispanic and Black survey respondents.
In the same polling, only 39 percent said they had either a very or somewhat favorable view of Cruz.
Cruz was prominent in Congressional pushes after the 2020 presidential election against the swift certification by the House and Senate of electoral vote totals from the race. Cruz pushed the idea at the time of conducting additional investigations into the handling of the election before moving forward with Congressional certification, though officials across multiple levels of government — including state and federal teams — had already conducted sweeping examinations of the election and found nothing to support claims of systematic fraud.
But Cruz even suggested the possibility of a change to electoral college results put forward by individual states ahead of Congressional processes capping things off.
“To wit, Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states. Once completed, individual states would evaluate the Commission’s findings and could convene a special legislative session to certify a change in their vote, if needed,” said a joint Republican statement posted to Cruz’s website and dated to just before January 6, 2021. After temporary disruptions from that day’s attacks at the Capitol complex by Trump supporters, the House and Senate eventually just moved forward with the certification.
