Colin Allred Torches Ted Cruz for Jan. 6 Response in Heated Debate
Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred had one prevailing message for Texans regarding Senator Ted Cruz: You can’t trust this guy.
Going head-to-head for the first time on Tuesday night, Allred systematically portrayed Cruz as failing to work for the Lone Star State, including torching the Republican for his response to the January 6, 2021, riot in the U.S. Capitol and for fleeing the state during times of hardship.
“After he’d gone around the country lying about the election, after he’d been the architect of the attempted overthrow of that election, when that mob came, Senator Cruz was hiding in a supply closet,” Allred said.
Cruz, in turn, shook his head and laughed weirdly. But the sordid detail first emerged from the 53-year-old’s own book, Justice Corrupted, which detailed Cruz’s escape into a “supply closet with stacked chairs” while Trump supporters descended on the legislature.
“And that’s OK, I don’t want him to get hurt by the mob, I really don’t. This election is his accountability. You cannot just be patriotic when your side wins,” Allred continued. “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.”
Allred also attacked Cruz for his minuscule legislative accomplishments after more than a decade in office, which included joining a conservative effort earlier this year to bomb a bipartisan border deal to help Trump win the election. Cruz also faced the fire for his trip to Cancún in 2021, dipping out on the state—and his dog—during a historic winter storm that paralyzed Texas’s infrastructure. Allred leaned into a Texan saying to sum up Cruz’s efforts during his congressional tenure: “all hat and no cattle.”
“This is a pattern. He talks tough, but he never shows up,” Allred said. “Six more years of this? Come on. He’s had 12 years to do it already.”
Cruz, meanwhile, cast Allred as “radical and extreme,” lamenting that the native Texan would “change” Texas.
“We’re doing an awful lot right in the state of Texas,” Cruz said at the top of the debate. “Colin Allred wants to change that. I want to keep Texas Texas.”