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Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz is currently caught up in a tough re-election battle – something one top pollster believes is down to memories of his notorious Cancun scandal.
Cruz – a one-time Donald Trump enemy turned MAGA cheerleader and cable news favorite – faced backlash in February 2021 when he jetted off on holiday to a luxury beach resort in Cancun while his state was hammered by a winter storm that killed 246 Texans and left millions without power and running water.
Following uproar, the senator raced home and gave groveling interviews at the airport in which he tried to claim he was just trying to be “a good dad” to his daughters.
The scandal was exacerbated when a reporter drove past the politician’s Houston residence and posted a picture on social media of Snowflake, the Cruz family poodle, peering sadly through the front door, having seemingly been left home alone in the cold.
Cruz earned the nickname “Cancun Cruz” and has been unable to shake the saga since. (This January, his own attempt to joke about the matter fell flat when the Lone Star State was yet again struck by freezing conditions.)
Now, the ill-advised trip could come back to haunt him in the race against Democratic challenger Colin Allred this November, according to Jessica Taylor, Senior Editor of The Cook Political Report.
Appearing on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Thursday, Taylor told host John McArdle just how crucial the Senate races will be on November 5.
“The overall map is very hard for Democrats,” she explained. “They have a 51/49 majority, but it functionally starts at 50/50 because they’re going to lose that West Virginia seat with Joe Manchin retiring.”
The pollster added that Kamala Harris’s party “cannot afford to lose any incumbent” and must seek an “offensive target” if it is to retain its slim majority in the upper chamber of Congress.
“Increasingly, Texas is becoming that target,” Taylor continued, noting the closeness of Cruz’s three-point win over Beto O’Rourke in the 2018 midterms.
The pundit characterized Cruz as a “polarizing” figure who could be vulnerable to Allred on issues like abortion and his record in office.
But there’s another issue that Cruz
“I was watching a focus group a couple of weeks ago of undecided Trump voters in this Senate race, and they immediately brought up Cancun,” she continued.
“He was very much assailed for this. There was sort of this iconic image of him coming back, rolling a suitcase with a Texas [Covid] mask.
“Allred features that in a lot of his ads. Talks about Ted Cruz abandoned us when we needed him.”
Taylor continued: “I think it sort of further inflames why people have very strong feelings about Ted Cruz. But you see Republicans now putting more money in the race, painting Allred as tied to Harris and [Joe] Biden, particularly on immigration. But we’re seeing tightening poll numbers here and increased spending.”
Asked if the Allred camp sees a genuine path to victory in the polling, Taylor said Cruz is still just ahead by two to three points and that it remained a “best bad option” for Democrats hoping to secure an upset – but also noted that the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee had pledged to pour fresh funds into the race to support their candidate.
