Dewhurst, Cruz spar in Texas Debates matchup

Republican U.S. Senate primary runoff candidates Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz faced off in a live debate June 22 broadcast statewide with an OTA signal by a host of radio stations and in 13 of 19 Texas TV markets.

The Texas Debates: Race for U.S. Senate was produced at the KERA-TV studios in Dallas and was also seen live on local cable systems in four other TV markets as an imported OTA signal.

Many other radio and TV stations delayed the broadcast to later that weekend.

View the debate station clearance list

The Texas Association of Broadcasters funded the FREE and unrestricted distribution of the debate to Texas radio and television stations statewide as a public service.

TAB also funded real-time Spanish translation and closed captioning, a service it has contributed to broadcast debates for statewide office since 1998.

In addition to a high definition and standard definition satellite feed of the debate for Texas TV stations, TAB arranged for three distribution sources of the debate for Texas radio stations.

KERA Managing Editor, Shelley Kofler, led the session which featured a studio audience and       journalists Crystal Ayala, Political Reporter, Univision Texas; Peggy Fikac, Austin Bureau Chief, San Antonio Express-News / Houston Chronicle; and Ross Ramsey, Executive Editor, The Texas Tribune.

The Texas Debates was produced by KERA in partnership with TAB, Univision Texas, The Texas Tribune, Houston-Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News, Texas State Networks and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas.

Photo credit: Matthew Otero, AP