AUSTIN (Nexstar) — As Congressman Colin Allred prepares for the upcoming U.S. Senate election in which he will be head-to-head with Sen. Ted Cruz, he’s highlighting a bipartisan approach to issues such as immigration, border security and abortion.
Allred, a Democrat who represents a district in Dallas, joined Monica Madden to talk about the challenges and solutions he faces in the race for the Senate seat.
Immigration and border security
Texas Democrats held their state party convention earlier this month in El Paso. Congressman Allred gave the keynote address and emphasized the need for a bipartisan approach to addressing border security.
Allred tells us he believes a key step to ensure border security is to revisit the Senate Border Security Bill, which previously failed in the Senate and was opposed by Cruz.
Allred points to benefits for Texas in the bill, including more CBP personnel, more immigration judges and more administrative workers to handle the number of migrants crossing the border.
“No state would benefit more than Texas,” Allred said.
He blames election-year politics for blocking the bipartisan bill.
“That was turned away by folks like Ted Cruz, not because they disagree with the policy, because I think they wanted to have the problem to run on in November. And to me, that has to be outrageous to every Texan,” Allred said.
“I hope we can come back to that because for Texas, we can’t just kick this can down the road,” Allred said. “We have to have a secure border now.”
A key part of a potential solution, in Allred’s mind, is to hire more immigration judges to adjudicate asylum claims more quickly. He believes that most people currently trying to claim asylum would be rejected, and processing those claims faster would send a message.
“If you want to come here for a better life, for economic opportunity, the asylum system is not the process for that. That’s the legal immigration system, and we have methods for you to try and come in that way,” Allred said.
“I want to see us funnel folks into legal pathways,” Allred said. “Instead of trying to come here using an asylum system that really was not set up for these numbers or for the reasons a lot of these folks are coming.”
“I think there is nothing more important for safety and security in Texas than securing the border,” Senator Cruz told State of Texas host Josh Hinkle in a May interview. He puts blame for recent surges of migrant crossings on Democrats.
“Tragically, Joe Biden and Democrats, including Colin Allred my opponent who’s voted in favor of open borders over and over and over again, they are unwilling to secure the border,” Cruz said. He believes voters in November will elect Donald Trump for President as well as choose Republican majorities in the House and Senate. He believes that will change the situation on the border.
“We will secure the border in January of next year, and it will happen like that,” he said, snapping his fingers. “And I can say that with confidence, because we did it before,” Cruz added.
Reproductive healthcare
Congressman Allred says that there can be a bipartisan solution for restoring Roe v. Wade, and Texas voters can help.
“I want Texans to know the only way we’re going to do this at the federal level, and the only way we’re going to do this also, is by replacing Ted Cruz, who wants to have a nationwide ban on abortion,” Allred said.
“I think what most Americans expect is that we’re going to go back to the standard that we’ve had for the last 50 years, and that’s the standard under Roe v. Wade in which states do have, certainly actions they can take post viability,” Allred said.
In May, Senator Cruz introduced a bill intended to protect in vitro fertilization, or IVF, alongside Alabama Senator Katie Britt. Senator Cruz’s bill would prohibit states from receiving Medicaid funding if they have established an “outright ban” on IVF access.
Allred said that in vitro fertilization is at risk because of policies supported by Cruz and called the senator’s support for IVF “blatantly political.”
“It [IVF] did not need protecting before some of the policies that he has supported found their way into actually impacting women’s lives and familes’ lives, and that’s why we have to have this discussion now,” Allred said.
“I do think we have to protect IVF,” Allred said. “But we have to do that also in the context of restoring freedom to Texas women overall, to make their own health care decisions in consultation with their doctors and their families.”
Bipartisanship
A ProPublica analysis of congressional voting records shows that Cruz votes against his party slightly more often than Allred. On average, Cruz votes against the Republican Party 7.9% of the time, while Allred votes against the Democratic Party at a rate of 6% of the time.
We asked Allred if Senator Cruz is more bipartisan than him. Allred called that notion “outrageous.”
“There’s a reason why I’ve been named by outside groups the most bipartisan member of the entire Texas congressional delegation, and there’s also a reason why I’ve been given awards for it,” Allred said. “And it’s because certainly, there’s a difference between the House and the Senate, and there’s also a lot of times when Ted Cruz is voting against policies that have been put together by Republicans that he is opposing because he’s so extreme.”
Allred says he is currently looking for Republican bills to add his name to and encourage members across the aisle to join him in advancing bipartisan legislation. He claims that of all the bills he has co-sponsored in Congress, 73% have been bipartisan.
“There’s only so much I can do, obviously, as a member of Congress with 435 of us, but as a senator, I’ll have much more latitude and ability to work even better across the aisle,” Allred said.
