Rep. Colin Allred
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, announced Wednesday he is challenging U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for reelection.
The third-term congressman made the announcement in a three-minute video posted on social media. The video touted Allred’s life story and congressional record — and took multiple shots at Cruz, including over his role leading up to the Jan. 6 insurrection and the trip to Cancun during the 2021 winter freeze.
“We deserve a senator whose team is Texas,” said Allred, a former NFL player. “Ted Cruz only cares about himself — you know that.”
Allred had been considering a campaign for months, and the launch was no surprise after it leaked out earlier this week that his announcement was imminent.
Allred’s campaign begins as an uphill battle. A Democrat hasn’t won a statewide election in Texas since 1994, and while Cruz’s 2018 reelection race against Beto O’Rourke was surprisingly tight, Democrats have not been able to replicate such a close contest since then.
“Some people say a Democrat can’t win in Texas,” Allred said in the video, which partly focused on his upbringing from the son of a single mother to NFL player. “Well, someone like me was never supposed to get this far.”
[…]
Allred is likely to face primary competition. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, is likely to run but not expected to make any announcement until after the current legislative session, which ends May 29.
Allred has to give up his U.S. House seat to run against Cruz. It was made safe for Democrats during the 2021 redistricting process, and there will be no shortage of candidates for it in the Democrat-dominated Dallas area.
Allred’s launch video drew clear battle lines against Cruz, starting with the Jan. 6 insurrection when supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol in protest of his reelection loss. Allred said Cruz “cheered on the mob and then hid in a supply closet when they stormed the Capitol.”
“That’s Ted for you — all hat, no cattle,” Allred said.
The video also promoted Allred’s bipartisan credentials. He said he has “worked with Republicans” on issues related to veterans, trade and semiconductor manufacturing. The video included multiple shots of Allred appearing with a GOP colleague from North Texas, Rep. Jake Ellzey. They have teamed up a bill to authorize Veterans Affairs construction projects, including in Texas.
See here for the previous update about Allred, and here for the earlier news about Sen. Gutierrez. Maybe there will be a contested primary, and maybe Sen. Gutierrez will decide that he doesn’t need to run after all. We’ll find out soon enough. I’m delighted to have Rep. Allred in the race – I will also be delighted with Sen. Gutierrez if that’s how this ends up – and I look forward to him giving a strong fight to Ted Cruz. He’s an underdog to be sure, and I hope someday to understand what his thought process was, but he can win. Go get ’em. Daily Kos has more.
(I expect we will see an article about who will run for the now-open CD32 in very short order. In all the prior reporting about Allred’s likely Senate run, that subject never came up, so offhand I don’t have any names for this. But I’m sure more than one person has been giving this matter a lot of thought. We’ll know who those folks are pretty quickly, I expect.)
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While there’s no explanation that doesn’t make Cruz look bad here, I am curious about the thought processes of whoever decided to do this:
https://twitter.com/ColinAllredTX/status/1654888785384034305
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