As part of a series of campaign rallies throughout Texas, Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s bus tour veered into Corpus Christi on Tuesday, making stops at the Corpus Christi Marina and the S & J Bakery.
The candidates in the U.S. Senate race are campaigning for what could be a close election this season. Cruz is leading Allred in polls by an average of about 4 percentage points, according to the FiveThirtyEight blog.
Cruz launched his statewide bus tour in late September with 50 stops planned throughout Texas. Tuesday marked the second day of early voting ahead of the Nov. 5 general election.
After speaking at the marina on Tuesday morning on the topic of illegal red snapper fishing, he gathered before a packed room of supporters at the Northwest Corpus Christi bakery in the afternoon, sounding a familiar reveille of low taxes and low regulations on small businesses and defending the Texas oil and gas energy industry.
Cruz decried his opponent, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, for the congressman’s stance on law enforcement, saying Allred is aligned with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ “open border” policies.
Allred spoke to the Caller-Times in early August during a visit to Corpus Christi, where he toured the Port of Corpus Christi and held a campaign rally. He held a smaller event on Oct. 10 at Herrejon’s Bakery, where he talked with members of the family-owned company about issues impacting small businesses in the area, including ensuring they have resources and access to capital, grant programs and industry best practices to stay competitive.
In a phone interview with the Caller-Times earlier this month, Cruz voiced his support for projects to expand petroleum exports from Corpus Christi. He last came to town in April for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Packery Channel Restoration Project, where he spoke about how his office had worked with local elected officials and legislators to secure funding to rebuild the channel after it was damaged by Hurricane Harvey.
He credited the growth of Corpus Christi’s economy to the oil and gas industry, describing it as a place that was once a quiet beach town and is now an “oil and gas powerhouse.”
“We’re standing right now in the No. 1 export port for petroleum in the United States of America,” the senator said Tuesday. “Today, Corpus is a booming oil town, and it is amazing the jobs that have come from that, the prosperity that comes from that, and that can be taken away.”
In the runup to the election, both candidates have focused on linchpin issues including local investments and infrastructure. Cruz has championed the petrochemical industry as a job creator and economic boon, while Allred has stressed the need to balance industry with the concerns of individuals living in neighborhoods that are impacted by growth and development, such as Hillcrest, which is located in the area of a proposed desalination plant.
Cruz has called for eliminating bureaucracy throughout his political career by pursuing legislation that strikes legal requirements for environmental legislation, reviews and permits.
Speaking to the enthusiastic crowd at Tuesday’s rally, he said Allred had voted in favor of the president’s ban on new permits to export liquefied natural gas, stating that the congressman also supported Biden’s ban on gasoline engines.
According to a news release published on Allred’s website, the congressman called on the Biden administration earlier this year to end the pause on permitting new liquefied natural gas export projects “to strengthen national security and power the economy.”
Both candidates voted in support of the Port of Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project.
Cruz drove home his policies on border security. He said that “Allred’s record on security has been terrible,” citing issues including human trafficking and fentanyl and drug overdoses that he claimed resulted from the congressman’s policies.
Allred has repeatedly stated that he has pursued legislation that supports pathways to citizenship and asylum for migrants, saying the U.S. is capable of having a secure and humane border.
Both senatorial candidates have raised more than $50 million in political contributions in the last quarter, according to news releases published on their websites.
Cruz recently announced that he’d raised $21 million in the third quarter of 2024 through a total of 212,000 unique contributions, with an average contribution of $38.23 and 101,000 first-time donors.
In October, Allred announced that his campaign had brought in more than $30 million in the last three months — a total of $68.7 million to date.
More: Congressman Colin Allred visits family-owned bakery in Corpus Christi Thursday
More: Sen. Ted Cruz champions oil and gas as job creators in Corpus Christi and Texas
This article originally appeared on Corpus Christi Caller Times: Sen. Ted Cruz rallies voters on Tuesday at Corpus Christi bakery
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