'Threat to democracy': Allred demolishes 'all hat no cattle' Cruz in 'combative' debate

16 October 2024

The stakes were high Tuesday night as U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz, seeking re-election to a third term, met for their first and only debate. Allred, 41, a civil rights attorney and former NFL linebacker repeatedly knocked down Cruz, 53, running for a third term in office. The U.S. Senate majority is expected to be decided by possibly just two seats.

“WFAA issued a new poll for the more than 40,000 viewers on the YouTube livestream asking who won the debate,” MySanAntonio.com reported. “More than 25,000 viewers voted with 67 percent saying Allred while 33 percent said Cruz won the debate.”

Cruz is leading Allred in the latest polls by two to five points, according to FiveThirtyEight.

The Dallas Morning News called the debate “combative,” saying the candidates “attacked each other’s positions and character as they sparred over hot-button issues that included abortion, immigration and the economy.”

Congressman Allred accused Senator Cruz, whose podcast deal allegedly may have violated campaign finance laws, with having “introduced this new kind of angertainment, where you just get people upset and then you podcast about it and you write a book about it and you make some money on it, but you’re not actually there when people need you.”

“Like when the lights went out, when 30 million Texans were relying on a senator to spring into action, he went to Cancun. That’s who he is.”

Allred attacked Cruz on abortion, one of the top issues for voters.

“I want to be very clear to the people of Texas. I support the protections and the restrictions under Roe,” Congressman Allred said. “But Senator 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 anymore. It’s not pro-life to force a victim of rape to carry their rapist’s baby. It’s not pro-life that our maternal mortality rate has skyrocketed up by 56%. That’s not pro-life, Senator.”

“So to every Texas woman at home and every Texas family watching this, understand that when Ted Cruz says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t mean yours.”

That line flew across social media countless times, with people posting and reposting the quote and videos of that moment.

Another line that went viral across social media was Allred prosecuting Cruz over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, declaring the Texas Senator a “threat to democracy.”

“I have to say, you can’t be for the mob on January 6th and for the officers. You can’t,” Allred declared, as Cruz nervously chuckled. “And it’s not funny. ’cause you’re a threat to democracy.”

“Sure,” Cruz replied, and he began to laugh.

“I was on the House floor when we went through the votes. I remember when you objected to the results in Arizona. Y’all at home might remember where you were on January 6th, what you were doing. I know where I was and I know where he was.”

“I remember when they told us to reach under our seats for these gas masks, I didn’t know we had because they had deployed tear gas in the rotunda. The officers locked all the doors, we barred the doors,” Allred said. “And I texted my wife, Ali, who was seven months pregnant with our son, Cameron, and at home with our son Jordan, who wasn’t yet two. ‘Whatever happens, I love you.'”

“I took off my suit jacket and I was prepared to defend the House floor from the mob. At the same time after he’d 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, Senator Cruz was hiding in a supply closet.”

Cruz, again chuckling, shook his head.

“And that’s okay. I don’t want him to get hurt by the mob. I really don’t. This election is his accountability. You cannot be just be patriotic when your side wins,” Allred said. “If, for the first time in 250 years, this project of ours, this shared American project, that we did not have a peaceful transfer of power, the folks responsible have to be held accountable. That’s why Liz Cheney has endorsed me, has got involved in this campaign, is saying to Texans everywhere, ‘Do not put Ted Cruz back in a position of authority.’ Because he’s done it once, he’ll do it again.”

The focus on reproductive healthcare continued, with Allred slamming Cruz for supporting Texas’s abortion ban.

“Listen, it’s time to finally tell the truth here. Senator Cruz just looked into a camera and lied to Texans about my position,” Allred told voters, as Cruz chuckled. “Let’s be very clear, you should look into the camera and speak to Kate Cox, who’s watching right now and explain to her why you said that this law that you said is perfectly reasonable, why she was forced to leave her two children behind and flee our state to get the care that she needed, or look into the camera and talk to the Amanda Zurawski, who’s watching right now, and explain to her why it’s perfectly reasonable that because she had a complication in her pregnancy and was denied care so long that she may never be able to have children of her own, or to the 26,000 Texas women who have been forced to give birth to their rapist’s child under this law that you call perfectly reasonable.”

“It’s not. This is not freedom. I trust Texas women to make their own health care decisions,” Allred continued. “You know, Allie and I had two baby boys here in Dallas in the last five years. You’re scared the entire time. You don’t know what they’re gonna say, but I can’t imagine if the doctor would come in so there’s a problem with the baby or a problem with Allie, but there’s nothing I can do because Ted Cruz thinks he knows better.”

Allred also blasted Cruz over in-vitro fertilization (IVF), an issue that has also dogged—and split—Republicans.

“IVF didn’t need protecting until he got his way of going after it,” the Texas Democrat charged. “No one was thinking that we need to protect IVF until he was singularly responsible for pursuing, by putting place in place judges at the district court level, the circuit court level and the supreme court level, folks who would put at risk, this miracle technology. And you know what? It’s not just that. When he ran for President in 2016, he supported the personhood amendment. You know what that means? That would make something like IVF illegal, but also ban certain forms of birth control. You did. You did.”

Cruz interjected: “No, fundamentally false.”

“When you ran for president in 2016, you could look it up, folks,” Allred replied. “You don’t have to believe me. Again. You’ve been seeing him lie to you for 12 years. Let’s have a senator who doesn’t.”

Ultimately, Allred branded Cruz with a Texas saying, calling him “all hat and no cattle,” meaning, “all show and no substance.”

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