'We have a battle on our hands': Cruz kicks off Texas tour, Allred rallies DNC in fight for Senate

GEORGETOWN, Texas (Nexstar) -- More than 400 people joined Senator Ted Cruz for an early morning rally in Georgetown on Friday, waving "Keep Texas Texas" and donning the red "Make America Great Again" hats as the two-term senator kicks off a six-stop tour he hopes will engage his conservative base in a competitive reelection.

"Texas is a battleground, there's no doubt Texas is a battleground," Cruz said, wary of what he expects to be a $100 million investment from national Democrats. "It's not going to work. Take a look at a morning like this, 9 a.m. in Williamson County. The folks that are coming out, they are energized, they are empowered, they defend Texas, they want to keep Texas 'Texas'...I'm confident that's how Texas is going to vote in November."

Cruz is a well-funded, longtime Texas official with a national profile in a reliably red state -- but he's not taking anything for granted. After Democratic all-star Beto O'Rourke pushed Cruz within three points of his political life in 2018, Cruz is taking Colin Allred's challenge seriously.

"We have a battle on our hands," Cruz warned the crowd. Chuck Schumer has made explicit I'm his number one target in the country. They are coming after the State of Texas. My last reelect, we won by less than 2.6 percent. And the Democrats intend to spend more than $100 million trying to win this state."

Meanwhile, Allred has been dominating the airwaves in Texas' blue cities, outspending and outraising the incumbent. Thursday night, he introduced himself to the nation on his biggest stage yet at the Democratic National Convention.

"I'm the guy who's going to turn Texas' Senate seat blue," Allred said. "We will protect and restore reproductive freedom, we will secure the border, we will protect Medicare and Social Security, and we'll turn the page and write a new chapter for this country -- elect Kamala Harris to be the next president and beat Ted Cruz."

Chants of "beat Ted Cruz" rang through the crowd as he walked off stage.

The latest polling from the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs shows a razor-thin race within the margin of error, with Cruz up by two points at 46.6% to Allred's 44.5%.

Cruz is hosting rallies in Waco and Fort Worth Friday, then heading to Tyler and Beaumont on Saturday and ending the tour in Houston. Allred is hosting a major "Women for Allred" event in Dallas on Saturday, focusing on Texas' abortion ban alongside some of the women who have made national headlines for near-fatal pregnancy complications post-Roe.