Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Colin Allred are exchanging blows on the campaign trail as polling shows the Republican incumbent holding a strong lead in the U.S. Senate race.

Cruz (R-TX) leads Allred (D-TX) by eight percentage points in the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling data, with the latest survey from the University of Texas/Texas Politics Project poll showing the incumbent leading by 13 percentage points. The senator’s campaign has focused on painting Allred as a radical left-wing political figure who opposes border security.

“Colin Allred and the Democrats have proved to Texans that they don’t care about their well-being, safety, or wallets,” a Cruz campaign spokesperson told The Dallas Express. “Colin Allred is a radical who will cripple our oil and gas industry, prioritize criminals over law-abiding citizens, and continue Biden’s reckless open-borders agenda, which is why there is no doubt that Texans will resoundingly reject Colin and re-elect Senator Cruz in November.”

Allred’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The congressman spoke at the Texas Democratic Party convention last week and described his opponent as “self-serving.”

“Unfortunately, Washington, D.C., is full of ‘me-guys,’ but no one — and I know this from my six years now in Congress — no one is more self-serving, more disconnected from Texans’ needs than Ted Cruz,” he said, according to the San Antonio Express-News. “We don’t have to be embarrassed by our senator. We can get a new one.”

The Texas Democratic Party convention in El Paso promoted drag queens and transgender procedures for minors, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.

Allred has refused to comment on a DX story that detailed his support for an anti-Israel imam. The congressman previously praised Omar Suleiman, who called Israel a “terrorist regime” and warned that “the beginning of the end of Zionism is here.”

He also touted an endorsement in April from his former employer, NextGen America. The organization has supported defund-the-police and abolish-ICE initiatives, as previously reported by DX. The group also advocated for passing the Green New Deal.

The congressman, a former NFL player, voted for Ukraine aid in April, then missed a vote hours later on border security.