'Cruz just looked into a camera and lied': Sparks fly as Democrat unloads at Texas debate

Sparks flew at the Texas Senate debate on Tuesday night, as the Democratic opponent of Sen. Ted Cruz, former NFL player, civil rights lawyer and Dallas-area Rep. Colin Allred, hammered the firebrand senator repeatedly over his abortion stance in light of Texas adopting one of the most extreme bans in the nation.

Polling has shown that Cruz retains a slight lead in the race, but Allred is fighting to be the first Democrat elected to statewide office in Texas since the 1990s.

"Senator Cruz just called himself pro-life. You’re not," said Allred. "It’s not pro-life to deny women care so long that they can’t have children anymore ... To every Texas woman at home ... when he says he’s pro-life, he doesn’t mean yours."

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Cruz tried to brand Allred as the candidate with the radical position on abortion — but Allred was having none of it.

"It's time to finally tell the truth here: Senator Cruz just looked into a camera and lied to Texans about my position," said Allred, as Cruz visibly shook his head and snorted with laughter.

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"Let's be very clear: you should look into the camera and speak to Kate Cox, who's watching right now, and explain to her why you said this law that you said is 'perfectly reasonable,' why she was forced to leave her two children behind and flee our state to get the care that she needed," Allred said. "Or look into the camera and talk to Amanda Zurawski, who's watching right now, and explain to her why it's perfectly reasonable that because she had a complication in her pregnancy and was denied care so long that she may never be able to have children of her own, or to the 26,000 Texas women who've been forced to give birth to their rapist's child under this law that you called perfectly reasonable. It's not."

"This is not freedom," he continued. "I trust Texas women to make their own health care decisions. Now Aly and I had two baby boys here in Dallas in the last five years. You're scared the entire time, you don't know what they're going to say. But I can't imagine if a doctor came in, said there's a problem with the baby, or a problem with Aly, but there's nothing I can do, because Ted Cruz thinks he knows better. That's not who we are as Texans. When I'm in the United States Senate, we'll restore a woman's right to choose, we'll make Roe v. Wade the law of the land again, and we'll make these stories of seeing these horrific experiences going on all over our state something of the past. That's my commitment to Texans."

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