Cheney sat down with the Dallas Morning News' political reporter Gromer Jeffers Jr. to discuss why she supports Colin Allred over Ted Cruz for U.S. Senate.
Liz Cheney is not a fan of Ted Cruz, the junior senator from Texas
In Dallas to raise money for Democrat Colin Allred, Cheney says she doesn’t trust Cruz to do the right thing.
Former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, a conservative Republican, said Monday she’s backing Democrat Colin Allred for U.S. Senate because GOP incumbent Ted Cruz can’t be trusted to do what’s right.
“I think it’s really important for us as a country, if we’re going to move forward, to elect people of good faith, to elect people that we can trust, to elect people you might say, we don’t agree on every issue, but I know that Colin is going to do what he thinks is right,” Cheney, in Dallas to help Allred raise campaign money, told The Dallas Morning News.
Cheney said her biggest problem with Cruz relates to his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when he objected to certifying the results of the presidential election even after rioters disrupted congressional proceedings.
In contrast, she said, Allred was prepared to physically defend members of the House from rioters.
“I know that he’s going to listen. I know that we can have really fruitful discussions about the issues and work together for common solutions,” Cheney said. “And I know that Ted Cruz is going to say and do whatever serves Ted Cruz’s political interest, and that includes what we watched him do after the 2020 election, which was basically put together this effort that would have resulted in throwing out the votes of millions of Americans.”
Allred, who joined the interview with Cheney, said he welcomed Cheney’s support, adding that it would help him reach Republicans and independents.
“I hope that principled conservatives here in Texas will understand that I want to serve them, that we are part of the same coalition,” said Allred, a member of the U.S. House from Dallas. “That coalition is one that, as Liz said, is about more than partisanship or any individual policy. It’s about a fidelity to an idea, the most powerful idea the world has ever had, which is the United States could be a country governed by itself and by its people.”
Cruz campaign spokesperson Macarena Martinez said “Liz Cheney is on a crusade against top Republicans” and “no one takes her endorsement of any candidate seriously.”
Martinez said Republican primary voters emphatically rejected Cheney in 2022.
“She was overwhelmingly rejected by voters in Wyoming two years ago, just like Colin Allred will be in 50 days by Texas voters,” she said in a text message. “She’s a loser, and soon he will be too, but hey, it takes one to know one.”
Cheney was in Dallas to headline an Allred fundraiser.
She first announced she was backing Allred over Cruz earlier this month at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. That endorsement came after Cheney said she’ll vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in her White House race against former President Donald Trump.
Cheney, who said Monday she’s never voted for a Democrat, urged Texans to reject Cruz.
“I don’t really know anybody on either side of the aisle who’s stepping up saying Ted Cruz is a person of good character. So where we are today is there actually is a great choice in this race, and I think that no matter where people are on the political spectrum in Texas, I would say take a look at Colin Allred … he’s going to be somebody that you can count on, you can trust, and that this is above partisanship.”
Cheney, a Wyoming Republican who served in the House from 2017-23, said she has had dealings with Allred in Congress and conceded that they have disagreements.
“We don’t agree on every issue, but I know that Colin is going to do what he thinks is right,” she said. “I know that he’s going to listen.”
Allred has cast himself as a moderate Democrat with a bipartisan approach. He disagreed with President Joe Biden on border security issues and was among three Democrats who supported a GOP-driven resolution in January that denounced “the Biden administration’s open-borders policies.”
Cruz isn’t buying Allred’s appeal to bipartisanship, saying the Democrat has voted with Democratic Party leadership for nearly his entire time in office. Allred was first elected to Dallas-anchored District 32 in 2018.
“Colin Allred has been an extremely liberal member of Congress,” Cruz said at a recent North Texas rally, adding that Allred “voted 100% with Nancy Pelosi” during his first term and supports “open borders.”
“Those are not the values of Texans,” Cruz added.
The Cruz-Allred Senate showdown in November is Texas’ marquee race.
Some recent polls show a close race. An August poll by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University has Cruz leading Allred by only 2 percentage points. But a University of Texas survey conducted in August had Cruz with an 8-point lead. The Real Clear Politics average of polls has Cruz leading by 6 percentage points.
Republican consultant Brendan Steinhauser, a Trump critic, says Cheney’s endorsement would have a marginal impact on the race but provided a good talking point for Allred’s campaign.
“The Cheney family’s influence in Texas is not what it was in the early 2000s, where it was quite influential,” he said. “The party is just very different than it was then, though she might have some impact on some independent voters in Texas, some swing voters here and there.”
