Fox News Decision Desk projects Ted Cruz wins third term, defeating Dem Colin Allred

The Fox News Decision Desk projected that incumbent Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz will defeat his Democratic opponent Rep. Colin Allred on Tuesday, and win a third term in the U.S. Senate. 

Cruz won his last re-election effort in 2018, beating Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke. 

Cruz has represented the Lone Star State in the upper chamber of Congress since 2013. 

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Colin Allred, left, and Ted Cruz (Getty Images)

Allred represents Texas’ 32nd Congressional District in the House. 

Cruz is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. He previously clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and was solicitor general of Texas. Cruz argued nine cases before the Supreme Court. 

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Cruz sits on four Senate committees – Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Rules and Commerce, Science, and Transportation. 

Sen. Ted Cruz in Washington, D.C., on July 30, 2024. (Allison Bailey/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Cruz won his last Senate race by about three points in 2018.

Allred, 40, a former NFL player, polled slightly behind Cruz throughout the race, but experts believed it would be close. 

No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas in 30 years, the longest losing streak of its kind in the U.S. 

Allred, though, had ousted a Republican incumbent before – Rep. Pete Sessions in 2018. 

Sen. Ted Cruz walks out of a meeting room for the lawyers of President Trump during the impeachment trial on Capitol Hill on Feb. 12, 2021. (Getty Images)

During his campaign, Allred emphasized his background as the child of a single mother who earned a football scholarship at Baylor University, played in the NFL and worked for the Obama administration before being elected to Congress.

Allred made headlines in January when he was among 14 House Democrats who backed a Republican resolution in Congress that criticized President Biden’s handling of the border. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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