Sen. Ted Cruzadmitted his race against Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke will be a tough one.

The Republican told ABC13 that his re-election bid is a “real race” because of energy on the “hard left.”

“The anger on the left is real. And so I think the urgency for conservatives, the urgency for Texans who don’t want to see us turn into California needs to be real as well,” Cruz said.

Last week, Cruz released his first ads for his re-election campaign and multiple polls showed O’Rourke within single digits against Cruz.

“If we turn out freedom-loving Texans, we’re going to keep this state bright red,” he said. “but we’ve got to make sure people show up and vote.”