The U.S. Senate race in Texas this year was the most expensive in the country, with candidates Colin Allred and Ted Cruz jointly raising almost $193 million.
The Democrat got the upper hand when it came to fundraising, racking in over $100 million compared to Cruz's almost $92.5 million, according to data published by the Texas Tribune got from the Federal Ethics Commission going up to late November.
However, it wasn't enough. Cruz easily won the election by more than eight percentage points, getting 53.1% of the vote compared to Allred's 44.5%. Libertarian Ted Brown, on his end, took less than 2.5% of the votes.
Allred managed to raise most of the massive sum through his main campaign account, Colin Allred for Senate, with the rest coming in from his joint fundraising committee, Colin Allred Victory Fund. Cruz raised over $69 million through Ted Cruz for Senate and some $23 million through his two joint fundraising committees.
The Republican also spent less of what he raised, ending the campaign with over $4 million on hand among all fundraising entities. Allred finished with less than $1 million.
During his campaign, Cruz largely focused on immigration, promising to back conservative policies that would "keep Texas, Texas."
Cruz's campaign launched multiple million-dollar ads attacking Allred's "liberal" stance on transgender and immigration issues. Cruz claimed the U.S. Congressman backed "open borders" and planned to use taxpayer money to pay for transgender treatment for minors, claims Allred's campaign had to constantly flag as misleading.
On the other hand, Allred's campaign focused on ads blasting Cruz for rejecting a bipartisan border security bill and "standing in the way of efforts to lower prescription drug costs, raise wages, and lower prices across the board. Allred also took a strong stance to defend abortion and reproductive rights, citing cases of women dying and suffering from medical complications.
Throughout his campaign, Allred described Cruz as an underperforming lawmaker and gained endorsements from prominent Republican figures including Liz Cheney, former Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, and Former state Rep. Jason Villalba.
Polls throughout the race showed both candidates neck to neck, with some of the surveys even favoring Allred. However, election day showed a completely different scenario, with Cruz now securing a Senate seat until at least 2030.
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