Ted Cruz begins bus tour in hopes of gaining support for his reelection race against Colin Allred

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (KTRK) -- Sen. Ted Cruz is on the road this week, busing from city to city to try to get voters to the polls in his reelection race against Congressman Colin Allred.

Cruz is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, and on Tuesday, he spent time in Waxahachie in north Texas. About 274 Ellis County residents turned up on Tuesday afternoon to support Cruz and listen to his pitch.

"This race comes down to one very simple thing: Keeping Texas, Texas," Cruz said. "I tell you, this choice is very simple. It's not between Republicans and Democrats, not between conservatives and liberals. It is a choice between common sense and crazy. "

Ellis County was good to Cruz in 2018. He won 67% of the vote in a race where the margin was just 2.6% statewide -214 thousand votes out of more than 8 million cast.

"After the stump speech, I stood in line to shake hands, get autographs, and take pictures," County said.

Cruz understands the stakes, and that's part of the reason he is barnstorming the state from now until Nov. 5.

"I think in this election, turnout matters enormously," Cruz told ABC13, "I also think making a case on the merits, and one of the things I said today is that every election should be about records, the record of each candidate."

During his speech, he touched on three key elements: jobs, freedom, and security. He also worked to draw a contrast between his record and Allred's.

"Here in Texas, this senate race, we've got about a stark a choice as you can imagine, and this is a choice between Texas and crazy," Allred said.

Outside the theater, after greeting most of those attendees, he talked about an issue you won't see in any of his ads-abortion and the Supreme Court decision that ended Roe v. Wade and put it in the hands of the states.

"People would not expect the voters of Texas to come to the same conclusion as the voters of California," Cruz told a group of reporters. "People would not expect Florida and New York to have the same laws. I think that's right."

Issues aside, what got a then-relatively-unknown Cruz first elected in 2012 was a grassroots effort in which he met with groups large and small across the state. An effort his campaign is trying to duplicate in the final days of the 2024 election cycle.

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