U.S. House District 32 candidates meet in virtual debate

Candidates in one of the most competitive congressional races in Texas made their pitch to voters in a Sunday afternoon debate.

North Texans can’t turn on a TV without seeing ads for or against District 32 incumbent Colin Allred and businesswoman Genevieve Collins.

Their growing suburban district covers Dallas and part of Collin County.

Allred turned it blue in the Democratic wave of 2018. This year, Collins is trying to win it back for the Republicans.

The winner of the race may get a vote on another stimulus package to help people struggling during the pandemic.

During Sunday’s virtual debate, Allred said he’s frustrated Republicans have not supported legislation the Democratic-led House passed months ago.

Collins said she supports new stimulus but not what the Democrats have in mind.

“In May, the House passed the Heroes Act which had $3.4 trillion in desperately needed aid because we knew what the summer was likely going to look like and the Senate and Mitch McConnell said we’re not going to do anything. We’re going to take a pause,” U.S. Rep. Allred said. “We’ve done this twice now and tried to bend over backward and reach a number that would be amenable and we just have not had a partner that is willing to work with us.”

“It has enormous spending limits. $3 trillion is a lot of money. $3 trillion, that’s a lot of money with a lot of pork stuff in,” Collins said. “People are struggling and our Washington politicians are playing partisan politics. I do not believe that a state like Texas should be paying for states like California and New York who have failed their communities and their states by not passing a budget and bot being fiscally responsible.”

The candidates both said they support reforms in law enforcement following the deaths of George Floyd and other black men and women in police custody.

Neither Collins for Allred said they support defunding the police but both accused the other side of doing just that.

"We passed and I voted for $600 million in additional funding for our local police in the first Heroes Act. That's additional funding and Mitch McConnell and the Republicans in the Senate said not," Allred argued. "The only folks who are really defunding the police are the Republicans in the Senate who are going to deny state and local aid to our governments who are facing huge budget shortfalls. They're going to have to make deep cuts to our police and to our public safety."

"My opponent voted period to defund the police by $600 million. While he may try to pass the buck to the Senate, the reality is he voted with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time and she took that bill. She took $600 million out of the bill so it begs the question. Does my opponent really respect our law enforcement as heroes?" Collins replied.

And there has been a lot of spending in this race as well. The National Republican Congressional Committee is pushing to win back the seat and in addition to funding TV ads, mailers have been sent to voters in North Texas.

There was a contentious moment when Allred accused Collins of darkening his skin in mailers. Collins did not address that during the debate but a spokesperson for her campaign said it’s not true.