Sen. Ted Cruz champions oil and gas as job creators in Corpus Christi and Texas

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Seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz reiterated his support for projects to expand petroleum exports from Corpus Christi, which he describes as an oil and gas powerhouse, in an interview with the Caller-Times last week.

Cruz is ramping up his statewide campaign, launching the 2024 Cruz Bus Tour with 50 stops planned across Texas between now and Election Day, including in Corpus Christi.

The tour will be a last-minute opportunity for the longtime Houstonian to get out the vote, engage with Texans and focus on key issues including jobs, energy and infrastructure as he races against his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, who spoke to the Caller-Times in early August while visiting Corpus Christi.

Cruz last came to town in April for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Packery Channel Restoration Project, where he spoke about how his office had worked with local elected officials and legislators to secure funding to rebuild the channel after it was damaged by Hurricane Harvey.

He has advocated for major projects to expand Corpus Christi as a major gateway for U.S. crude exports, stating that his support played a role in the Biden administration earmarking $157 million to finish the Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project, which seeks to widen and dredge the channel to a depth of 54 feet to accommodate larger vessels capable of carrying a greater amount and wider variety of goods.

Texas senatorial candidates focus on jobs, economy in close race

The candidates are campaigning for what could be a close election this season. According to the latest polls on the Five Thirty Eight blog, Cruz has a 3.4% lead in the race. A Democrat hasn’t won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, and in 2018 — the same year Allred gained a seat in the U.S. House — Beto O’Rourke, then a U.S. representative from El Paso, came within 2.6 percentage points of unseating Cruz, drawing an unusually narrow margin in the statewide race.

Allred forfeited his House seat to run against Cruz, and the two have taken starkly different positions on many topics that are central to Texas.

Throughout his political career, Cruz has called for eliminating bureaucracy by pursuing legislation that strikes legal requirements for environmental legislation, reviews and permits, and has accused Allred of repeatedly voting against Texas energy and Texas jobs.

“The upcoming election will be pivotal to the future of the state’s jobs, freedom and security,” Cruz said in a phone interview with the Caller-Times, speaking about how he has championed energy in Texas oil and gas during his 12 years in the Senate. “My opponent has voted repeatedly for higher taxes, for trillions in spending that is driving inflation that’s hurting Texans across our state.”

Cruz views the state’s oil and gas sector as pivotal to securing jobs and trade with Mexico, touting an amendment that he introduced to streamline the presidential permitting process for building and expanding bridges across the Rio Grande in Brownville, Laredo and Eagle Pass. One of those bridges, the 4/5 International Bridge project, was granted a presidential permit by President Joe Biden on Oct. 3 to begin construction.

“When those bridges are completed, they will result in thousands of new, high-paying jobs in Texas and billions of dollars in additional investments in South Texas,” Cruz said.

The senator also cited the Kelly-Cruz bill, a recent piece of bipartisan legislation that he co-authored with Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. The bill is a substitute amendment to the CHIPS Act, which stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors, and is designed to expedite construction of semiconductor manufacturing plants. It was signed into law on Oct. 2. According to the U.S. Senate website, Cruz voted against the CHIPS Act in 2022.

With a 12-year record in the Senate, Cruz champions oil and gas as Texas job creators

He said Allred's opposition to fracking would destroy vast numbers of jobs across Texas and drives up energy costs for Texans, and that his opponent voted in favor of the president's ban on new permits to export liquefied natural gas.

According to a news release published on Allred's website, the congressman called on the Biden administration earlier this year to end the pause on permitting new liquefied natural gas export projects "to strengthen national security and power the economy."

On the topic of transportation and infrastructure, Cruz has supported developing interstate highways in Texas for farmers and ranchers to move their products more quickly to market, introducing language in the fiscal year 2022 appropriations bill to designate a portion of the Ports-to-Plains Corridor from Laredo to Raton, New Mexico, as a future interstate route.

He also championed the Interstate 14 project, co-written by Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat from Georgia, which expanded the highway to begin in Odessa and run across Texas into Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Georgia, to connect military bases across the states and add capacity to regions of the Permian Basin.

His opponent has emphasized the opportunity to pursue a bipartisan approach to infrastructure and energy, voting for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021 and the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. The latter included $157.3 million for the Port of Corpus Christi Ship Channel Improvement Project, contributing to an ongoing effort to support improvements in the state’s ports, roads and bridges.

Cruz voted against the bill. But he says that as the ranking member on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, he will lead that committee if Republicans win a majority in the Senate this fall, which would position him to pursue legislation and investments in aviation, airports and air traffic control to reduce flight delays and expand competition.

Aviation is a major driver of jobs in Texas, with multiple global airlines and airports headquartered in the state and hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Allred has been a proponent of improvements to Texas air travel and airports, announcing more than $91.5 million in federal Airport Terminal Program grants that nine Texas airports would receive to modernize their terminals. 

Immigration tops Cruz's list of concerns

The U.S. border is the topic on many voters’ minds this season. Whereas Cruz has called for border security and stopping immigration, Allred has pursued legislation that supports pathways to citizenship and asylum for migrants, saying the U.S. is capable of having a secure and humane border.

Cruz said that he has introduced the strongest border security legislation into Congress, including Kate’s Law and the Justice for Jocelyn Act. The bills would, respectively, create punishments for migrants who attempt to enter the United States after being denied entry or being removed multiple times and set stricter requirements for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to keep migrants in custody. Cruz opposes amnesty and says his opponent’s open border policies have produced “enormous suffering in the state of Texas.”

More: Corps of Engineers proposes $157 million to finish port's ship channel improvement project

More: Democrat Colin Allred outraises Republican Ted Cruz this year ahead of US Senate primaries