With 97% of votes counted, the AP reported that Cruz had 53.2% of votes to Allred’s 44.5%. Libertarian Ted Brown won 2.4% of votes. The 8.7-point lead is more than double what polls predicted, according to an average from 538.

Although votes were still being tallied early Wednesday, Cruz was flirting with a double-digit lead over Allred, a margin far greater than his win over O’Rourke by less than 3 percentage points.

DALLAS — Among the most closely watched Senate races this cycle is the Senate race between incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Colin Allred. Ted Cruz took an early lead over Allred in early vote totals, and the Republican Party of Texas was quick to declare victory for Cruz.

HOUSTON — Texas voters sent Republican Ted Cruz back for a third term in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, turning back Democratic challenger Colin Allred, a congressman from Dallas.

Cruz, 53, secured a third term following another expensive reelection campaign, six years after only narrowly beating Beto O’Rourke.

He easily won El Paso County. Allred started the night with a 60 percent of the vote. Cruz trailed with only 37% of the vote in El Paso. Those percentages were holding as Election Day votes were being added to the early vote tallies.

To win, a candidate must reach at least 270 electoral college votes. The map below shows which Texas counties voted for Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president in 2024. The map below shows which Texas counties voted for Ted Cruz or Colin Allred for U.S. Senate in 2024.

Sen. Ted Cruz has won re-election to the Senate, NBC News projects, defeating his Democratic opponent Colin Allred in a hotly contested election and crushing Democrats’ hope of winning a statewide race in Texas for the first time since 1994.

Incumbent Ted Cruz won a third term in the U.S. Senate Tuesday, narrowly defeating Democrat U.S. Rep. Colin Allred in the race to be the state's junior senator. Cruz, the projected winner, with 71% of the vote tallied leads with 53.56% of the vote to Allred's 44.44%.