Harris visits Texas, where the Senate race is heating up

HOUSTON – In the final weeks before Election Day, US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will make a surprise visit to Houston, Texas on Friday, as the Senate race between Democratic Congressman Colin Allred and Republican Senator Ted Cruz has tightened competitive in the largest red state.

This is Harris’ first stop in Texas since July, where she will appear with Allred at a rally Friday afternoon ostensibly about abortion rights, a key issue in elections across the country.

Allred, a three-term U.S. representative from Dallas, has narrowed the gap with Cruz in the polls and consistently outperformed him. National Democratic groups poured millions of dollars into Allred’s campaign.

Cruz, who is seeking his third term, is still the favorite to win in recent public polls by an average margin of about four percentage points. However, two leading poll watchers have now shifted the race from “likely Republican” to “lean Republican.”

On Sunday, the Dallas Morning News, the state’s leading daily newspaper, endorsed Allred, dealing another setback to Cruz. Some Democrats now view Texas as one of their best opportunities to win a Senate seat.

Allred focused his campaign on Texas’ abortion ban, one of the strictest in the country, and criticized Cruz for supporting a law that leaves no exceptions for rape, incest or the life of the mother. He also criticized Cruz for “focusing only on himself,” pointing to the two-term senator’s Cancun vacation in 2021 when millions of Texans lost power for days in a deadly historic winter storm.

Cruz, on the other hand, has focused heavily on immigration issues, accusing Allred and Harris of repeatedly voting for “open borders” while largely neglecting to address abortion exemptions and leaving the matter to state control.

Harris County, which includes much of Houston, is a Democratic stronghold. In 2020, Biden won the county by 13 points, but Trump led Texas by 5.6 points. Texas has remained the largest red state since Jimmy Carter’s victory in 1976.

Early voting began across Texas on Monday.