Just a little over 40 days out from the general election, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined his potential future colleague, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, on the campaign trail in the Houston area. 

The “Texas on the Frontline” rally, hosted at Glorious Way Church in Cypress, featured several local Republican candidates and leaned heavily on criticism of Paxton’s Democratic opponent, state Rep. James Talarico (D-Austin), for his socially liberal record. 

Before Cruz took to the stage ahead of Paxton, congressional candidate Jon Bonck, who is running as the Republican nominee for U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt’s (R-TX-38) seat, made two specific hits against Talarico: his past support for the transgender community and gender ideology more broadly, and his masculinity, or lack thereof — themes which were repeated throughout the event. 

Bonck alleged that Talarico wants to “trans Texas,” and described him as a “soft and weak man.”  

Cruz, who was introduced to the stage by Republican Party of Texas Chairwoman D’rinda Randall, first shared his father’s and his own Christian testimony before shifting gears to attacking the Democratic Party and Talarico individually.

“We are witnessing in the Democrat Party, literally, a communist and Islamist takeover,” Cruz said. 

“Why do the communists and Islamists come together? … They come together because they hate the same people … They hate Christians. They hate Jews. They hate capitalism. They hate the Constitution, and they hate America.”

He then mentioned several of the past controversial comments Talarico has made on social issues, including that “God is nonbinary,” which the GOP continues to broadcast in campaign materials against him. 

Cruz continued, “He was asked, ‘What are the burdens that weigh on your heart?’ He said what weighs on his heart is providing abortions to people who are transgender … that’s not even ideological. That’s just weird.”

Cruz didn’t shy away from acknowledging that polling in this race has been anything but favorable for Paxton and the GOP overall, and attributed Talarico’s apparent lead in the publicly-facing polls to the amount of money in “attack ads” that the Democratic Party has run against Paxton.  

“The polling in this race has it in a dead heat, and there’s a reason for that. Look, Paxton has had $200 million of attack ads against him. Turns out, when you face $200 million of attack ads, it’s going to leave a mark,” Cruz said. 

Only recently have the upper echelons of the Republican Party begun spending money to broadcast support for Paxton. Since September 1, GOP groups combined have allocated over $100 million for pro-Paxton ad spending, after Talarico largely dominated the airwaves and maintained millions more than the fundraising Paxton touted during the summer.   

The same day Cruz stood onstage with Paxton in Cypress, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) reportedly held a fundraiser alongside former President George W. Bush a few hours north in Dallas for GOP Senate candidates in battleground races — excluding Paxton. 

One of the more recent polls with a larger sample size, released by Texas Southern University on Tuesday, showed Talarico with one of the narrower leads he’s had in recent polling, with a 1-percentage-point lead over Paxton. Other surveys in preceding weeks had him up over Paxton as high as 6 points, although their sample sizes were much smaller. 

“I’m here today because the men and women in this room, I believe, hold the power to win this race because you’re not content to sit quietly on your rear end, saying, ‘Someone needs to do something,’” Cruz continued. 

He also referenced President Donald Trump’s prior comments questioning Paxton’s physical appearance, saying that “unlike President Trump, I’m not going to comment on his wardrobe.” 

“I have advised him to go out and buy a whole bunch of Trump ties,” he said. 

Consistent with the GOP’s anti-transgender and affordability-related pitch lines this election cycle, upon taking the stage, Paxton reiterated his four-point plan focused on lowering the cost of living, primarily through tax deductions, and touted his work in cracking down on Texas Children’s Hospital — which agreed to open a “detransition clinic” by October as part of their settlement with the state for providing illegal gender modification procedures to minors. 

“Protecting kids is not a culture war; it’s our job description. In Texas, parents raise children, not the government, not a doctor. There is so much at stake in this election,” Paxton said. 

Talarico made a stop in Houston just about one week prior to this event, hosted at the Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Third Ward, where he hit Paxton over alleged corruption and similarly emphasized affordability — making no mention of social issues such as gender modification, which Republicans continue to emphasize as one of their main attacks against the Democrats.

Early voting begins on October 19 and ends on October 30. Election Day is November 3.