Updated at 7:30 a.m. and 1:45 p.m. on Friday: Revised to include a copy of one of the TV ads the group Texas Forever is running in the Dallas area and then reaction from Sen. Ted Cruz.

WASHINGTON — A new super PAC aligned against Sen. Ted Cruz is launching a $1.2 million advertising buy in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, marking a late-hour ante in the heated Senate battle between the GOP incumbent and Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke.

The TV blitz that's slated to start Friday will arrive courtesy of Texas Forever, an outside group that organized last week and lists longtime Texas political consultant Chris Lippincott as its treasurer.

"Ted Cruz is a phony politician propped up by millions of out of state dark dollars who has spent the past six years doing favors for his special interest donors," Lippincott said. "We are standing up to make sure people across the great state of Texas know his shameful record."

The ads hit Cruz on health care, saying the Republican has sought to limit Texans' options.

The spots accuses the Republican of folding to the insurance lobby by voting to kick hundreds of thousands of Texans off their health care and eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions like arthritis, high blood pressure and other ailments.

"Ted Cruz: Good for insurance companies. Bad for you," one ad says.

Cruz, stumping Friday in Nacogdoches, said the super PAC was "saying things they know are lies."

"There's actually a Yiddish word for that — chutzpah," he said. "Because he knows what the position is of every Republican, all of us agree: We are going to protect pre-existing conditions. Period. The end."

Many health care experts have expressed concern that Republican legislation to address pre-existing conditions would not result in the same level of protection. Obamacare supporters have more broadly raised alarm that the GOP's health care approach would cause premiums to rise.

But Cruz said he's been proud to lead the Senate's unsuccessful effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, saying it's already caused premiums to spike. The push at least led to elimination, in the tax cut bill, of the individual mandate to have health coverage, he said.

"Now we need to finish the job," he said.

The exchange comes after pro-Cruz super PACs have spent millions of dollars of late to cover Texas' airwaves with ads that cast O'Rourke as a dangerous liberal extremist.

Those groups include the Club for Growth Action and Ending Spending Action funds; along with the Texans Are PAC, which has been fueled by Dallas businessmen Lee Roy Mitchell, founder of Cinemark USA, and Robert Rowling, owner of Omni Hotels and Gold's Gym.

Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited funds from corporations, individuals and associations. But they cannot contribute to or coordinate with a candidate's campaign.

The robust pro-Cruz super PAC support, which has tapered a bit, has had the effect of somewhat offsetting O'Rourke's sizable fundraising edge. Through early October, O'Rourke had spent just $3.4 million more on TV ads than Cruz and his allies, according to Advertising Analytics.

That outside effort has also perhaps prodded O'Rourke to take on a sharper tone in his own advertising spots.

The Democrat's most recent ads have featured him talking directly to the camera about Cruz's positions on immigration, health care and other topics. In one particularly pointed spot, O'Rourke says Cruz is "selling paranoia and fear instead of solutions."

And now the pro-Cruz groups' barrage appears to have motivated Texas Forever to get on TV.

Lippincott said the group is "going to do what we can to remind Texas voters about Ted Cruz's record." He declined to reveal the group's donors. Since Texas Forever formed on Oct. 19, it won't have to report its contributors to the Federal Election Commission until Dec. 6 — after the election.

Another organization, the Fire Ted Cruz PAC, has generated lots of buzz by needling the Republican with a series of spots directed by well-known Texas filmmaker Richard Linklater, but those advertisements have appeared only online.

O'Rourke, who's sworn off PAC contributions, has distanced himself from that kind of support.

But Cruz has not let the issue slide. The Republican noted in the last televised debate between the two candidates that the Fire Ted Cruz PAC has "raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and is spending them on ads attacking me and my family."

"When he says he doesn't take PAC money, he just lets others do it for him," Cruz said.

Washington correspondent Tom Benning reported from Washington, while Austin Bureau Chief Robert T. Garrett reported from Nacogdoches.