Russian captive’s father blasts Ted Cruz in ad endorsing Colin Allred

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WASHINGTON — Two years ago, Joey Reed excoriated U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for not doing more to help free his son Trevor, who was being held captive in Russia. Now his son is free, and father and son are working to help kick Cruz out of office.

Joey Reed announced his support for Democrat U.S. Rep. Colin Allred — who is running against Cruz — in an ad released Thursday morning.

“When my son Trevor Reed was detained by the Russian police, he was given nine years. We were frantic. We tried to stay focused and not just break down every day crying,” Joey Reed said in the ad. “The first politician we called was Ted Cruz. They basically said, ‘Oh we’re not going to be able to help you.’ Ted Cruz didn’t lift a finger for us when everybody else in the state did.”

Trevor Reed echoed the call to oust Cruz on social media, shorty after the ad went public.

"That's my Dad everyone!" Trevor Reed wrote, linking to the ad. "Remember if you're a Texan and you're voting this year that Ted Cruz doesn't care about you. Vote for a man who will."

Trevor Reed, a Marine veteran from Granbury, was arrested in Russia in 2019 on charges of assaulting a police officer during a trip to visit his Russian girlfriend in Moscow. He and the U.S. government denied the charges. He was incarcerated for nearly three years of his nine-year prison sentence until he was freed in a prisoner swap in April 2022.

Cruz’s office didn’t dispute Joey Reed’s account at the time. He previously said he did not get involved in the rescue effort because he was worried his involvement could make things worse.

“We were repeatedly advised by Administration officials that my taking a public role in this specific case would be counterproductive, and that because of my role fighting to stop the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, leaders in Russia may well have linked the two issues,” Cruz’s office said in a statement to The Dallas Morning News in 2022.

Cruz had jousted with Russian President Vladimir Putin as one of the biggest opponents in the Senate to Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline. The infrastructure project would have delivered natural gas directly to Germany from Russia. Members of both parties in the Senate opposed the natural gas pipeline for solidifying Western European reliance on Russian natural gas and for bringing Russian infrastructure into NATO territory. The pipeline was a major priority for both Putin and the German government, but was never brought on line due to the war in Ukraine.

Cruz told the newspaper at the time that he “would have eagerly taken a public role loudly calling for Trevor’s release, but I believed that the best way for me to help was to vigorously press the Administration behind the scenes and work through the State Department to bring Trevor home as soon as possible.”

In a statement to The Texas Tribune responding to Allred's latest ad, Cruz spokesperson Macarena Martinez said Cruz was "incredibly relieved for Trevor and his family when he was released from wrongful detention in Russia and safely returned home."

"Senator Cruz has been a leader throughout his Senate career in fighting for the return of unjustly held Americans," Martinez's statement continued. "He has been instrumental in bringing home American hostages from Lebanon and Venezuela, and is fighting daily to secure the release of Mark Swidan from China.”

Swidan, a Houston resident, has been held in China for over a decade on drug charges after drugs were found on his driver and translator. The Chinese government sentenced him to death in 2019. Cruz has also advocated for other prisoner releases, including Houston freelance journalist Austin Tice, who was captured in Syria in 2012, and WNBA player Brittney Griner, who was detained in Russia in 2022. Griner, a Houston native, was released later that year as part of a prisoner swap.

The Reeds were not impressed with Cruz’s justification in 2022. McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Cornyn, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, have also been loudly antagonistic toward the Russian government. Both overtly pushed the administration for Trevor Reed’s release.

“He didn’t do anything,” Joey Reed said of Cruz to The Dallas Morning News in 2022. “He’s an embarrassment to the state of Texas, let me just say that. I don’t care what or who runs against him, I will work for their campaign to defeat that son of a bitch.”

Joey Reed, who is a retired marine like his son, advocated with both President Joe Biden’s and former President Donald Trump’s administrations to free Trevor. He worked with Texas lawmakers in both parties, including Sen. John Cornyn and Reps. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, August Pfluger, R-San Angelo, Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, and Allred.

Joey Reed voted for Biden in 2020, but he praised members of both parties for helping free his son.

“The thing I like about Colin is he listens, he can relate to almost everyone. He’s willing to reach across the aisle,” Joey Reed said in the ad. “Our elected officials, they’re accountable not only for their actions but for their inactions. Ted Cruz is not here for Texas. Ted Cruz is here for Ted Cruz.”

Allred is pouring money into digital and televised advertising to amplify his name across the state. Allred is running uphill in his challenge against Cruz, with Cruz enjoying near-universal name recognition and benefiting from Trump leading the Republican ticket. Allred, meanwhile, has had to make himself familiar outside of his Dallas home base in the state’s biggest markets.