With just four days left until the start of in-person early voting in Texas, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred brought his campaign to San Antonio Thursday, promising to protect Social Security and Medicare if he wins in November.
“You have my commitment that when I’m in the United States Senate, I will stand up for seniors and working people and make sure we make these programs stronger and better,” Allred told about 30 people at a town hall-style meeting at Bazan Library on the city’s West Side.
It’s an issue Allred, 41, has featured in television ads and during his debate against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz earlier this week.
Allred has repeatedly attacked Cruz, 53, for comments he made back in 2012 when he was first running for the U.S. Senate and said he supported gradually increasing the retirement age and having less money taken from workers so they can invest in privately managed accounts.
Allred said attempts to raise the retirement age and cut benefits would hurt Texans.
“He’s tried to take these benefits away,” Allred said. “He wants Texans to work longer and for less.”
Cruz, who is seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, has pushed back on that attack.
“I’ve spent my whole career in the Senate fighting for seniors’ Social Security and long-term benefits, and that includes looking for ways to keep this program solvent,” Cruz said in a statement after the Allred event in San Antonio. “Social Security is an important bulwark of society and it’s a commitment we have made to our seniors.”
But the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a non-profit group based in Washington D.C., said Cruz has been no friend on the issue. Max Richtman, President and CEO of the group, flew to San Antonio to formally endorse Allred over Cruz. Allred has been in Congress representing Dallas since 2018.
“It’s clear who votes on the interest of seniors when it comes to Medicare and Social Security,” Richtman said.
Addressing those programs is critical for Allred because it helps him reach independent and moderate voters who rate the topic as high on their list of concerns.
Bexar County hasn’t been good for Cruz. He lost the county to Democrat Paul Sadler in 2012 by about 20,000 votes. In 2018, he lost to Democrat Beto O’Rourke by more than 100,000 votes in Bexar.
Cruz meanwhile was traveling to Lubbock and Midland hoping to drive up turnout in solidly Republican areas that he’s won big in before. But he might need an even bigger turnout this year because of Democrat gains in other parts of the state, like along Interstate 35.
In Lubbock, Cruz repeated his attacks on Allred for once calling the building of a border wall in Texas racist, and accused him again of supporting allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports — a charge Allred said is false. Allred on Thursday said he doesn’t support boys playing in girls’ sports but supports protections from discrimination for all people.
Cruz has released four different television ads on the issue and it may be helping his campaign. Internal polling released by Senate Republicans showed Allred’s unfavorable ratings with voters have climbed 10 percentage points since the ads started airing, even though it is rare for transgender girls to compete in boys’ sports in Texas.