Allred, Cruz agree to October 15 debate

U.S. Senate candidates Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Congressman Colin Allred (D-TX-32) will square off in at least one debate during the home stretch of this contentious race.

The pair agreed to debate on October 15 at 7 p.m. in Dallas. The event will be hosted and moderated by WFAA, which announced the matchup on Friday. So far, no other debates have been set by the camps.

It will last an hour and will be televised and broadcast across the state on all of media conglomerate TEGNA’s sister stations.

WFAA’s Senior Political Reporter Jason Whitely and the Dallas Morning News’ Gromer Jeffers will moderate.

“This is an important election for Texas,” said Leslie McCardel, WFAA’s Executive News Director. “As a local broadcaster, we are committed to fostering civic engagement. We look forward to hosting an open, informative debate that voters can watch live on our many platforms.”

Cruz and Allred are locked in a high-profile, expensive electoral bout.

Polling has the race anywhere between a 2- and 10-point margin, but all of the surveys filtered to “likely voter” models have it on the closer side.

Allred and the Democrats have far outspent Cruz and Republicans on television throughout most of the race, but that deficit is being closed some with future ad reservations — partially by a $6.7 million coordinated buy with the Republican Party of Texas focused on the issue of biological men in women’s sports.

Cruz is betting on that issue to shrink the large group of voters who are undecided on Allred and move them into the column of those with a negative view on the challenger.

Meanwhile, Allred has focused heavily on the abortion issue, which provides Democrats an advantage in the State of Texas restrictions that were triggered after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And his campaign strategy has been heavy on the television buys and lighter on the barnstorming tour that Beto O’Rourke made famous in 2018.

Cruz has also tried to fashion a more bipartisan image throughout the race, which includes messaging about the development of cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence in the U.S.

All of these issues and more — particularly the border crisis — are sure to be a focus of the debate next month, which could be the only time the pair squares off face to face before the November general election.

Early voting begins on October 20, five days after the debate.