U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has been on the campaign trail ahead of the November election against Democratic challenger Colin Allred, and at least one prominent Texas Democrat has endorsed the incumbent senator. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg, who has broken rank with Democrats in recent years, threw her support behind Cruz this week.
Cruz, for his part, has been touting the endorsement in an attempt to boost his bipartisan bonafides.
“This is an effort by Senator Cruz to show that he has moved to be more bipartisan, and I’d say it’s a trend that we’ve seen in his campaign this year,” said James Barragán, politics reporter for The Texas Tribune.
It’s unclear whether the endorsement will draw moderate democrats to Cruz’s side. Ogg, who lost her primary race earlier this year, has been at odds with her own party on many issues, including bail reform and pretrial release.
“That policy is meant to keep low-income people out of jail just because they can’t pay cash bail,” Barragán said. “But she’s been opposed to it, and so she sort of has a connection with Ted Cruz on that. She also has been outspoken on immigrants who allegedly commit crimes, which obviously Senator Cruz has also come out against.”
Hear more stories from the week in Texas politics in the audio player above.
