Former President Bill Clinton said in a video shared on social media that former President George W. Bush told him he thought Sen. Ted Cruz's political rival, Rep. Colin Allred, was “great.”

Allred, a former professional football player who currently represents Texas' 32nd District as a first-term Democratic representative, is challenging Cruz, a Texas Republican who has held the Senate seat since 2013, in this year's election.

In a video about Clinton's Harris-Walz campaign shared by Allred's campaign manager Paige Hutchinson, the former president praised Allred for pursuing law school after a football injury ended his NFL career.

“He got injured and that ended his career. Instead of dropping out, he went back to law school, became a voting rights advocate and became someone everyone would be proud of,” Clinton said.

Clinton said Allred was “universally admired,” adding that one of his voters, George W. Bush, “told me, 'This guy is great!'”

Allred became Bush's congressman when he defeated Republican incumbent Pete Sessions in the 2018 election.

Newsweek reached out to the Cruz and Allred campaigns and the George W. Bush Presidential Center via email Sunday morning for comment.

How are Cruz and Allred doing in the polls?

It will be an uphill battle for Allred to win Cruz's Senate seat in the red state. Then-Rep. Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat, came close in the 2018 election, but Cruz ultimately won by more than 200,000 votes.

Current polls show Allred several points behind Cruz.

A Morning Consult poll conducted Oct. 22-31 found 47 percent of likely voters supporting Cruz and 44 percent of voters supporting Allred. The survey's margin of error is plus or minus 2 percent.

A Cygnal poll conducted between Oct. 26 and Oct. 28 has Cruz leading Allred 49 percent to 45 percent. The survey surveyed 600 likely voters in Texas.

A poll conducted by ActiVote from Oct. 21 to 27 found 52 percent of 400 likely Texas voters supporting Cruz and 48 percent of voters supporting Allread. The survey's margin of error is 4.9 percent.

George W. Bush is silent on the presidential race

Meanwhile, pressure is growing on Bush to make a public statement about the presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, as several people close to him personally and politically have spoken out in support of Harris .

Former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, an anti-Trump Republican who has endorsed Harris, said in a conversation with David Remnick at the New York Festival on Oct. 26: “I can't explain why George W. Bush didn't expressed, but I think it's time and I wish he would.

Cheney's father, Dick Cheney, Bush's former vice president, has also endorsed Harris and called Trump a “threat to our republic.”

More than 200 of Bush's former aides have openly supported Harris, including former Bush White House communications director Nicolle Wallace, who told MSNBC on Nov. 1 that she hoped her former employer would have a “change of heart” after his Office had previously stated that he would not support anyone in this race.

Correction: 11/3/2024 1:36 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Paige Hutchinson's first name.