Topline
A Dallas-area congressman and former NFL linebacker has handed the first election hurdle and can problem Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, for the seat he is lengthy held in Congress, the second time Democrat Colin Allred has tried to unseat an incumbent Republican.
Key Info
A former Tennessee Titans linebacker and civil rights lawyer, Allred defeated State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (who represents Uvalde), Mark Gonzalez and a half-dozen different candidates throughout Tuesday’s main race to grow to be the Democratic nominee for the seat Cruz—the junior senator from Texas—has held since 2013.
Allred has largely campaigned by promising a bipartisan strategy and used his main run to tout his congressional accomplishments (Democrats had the Home majority from 2018 to 2022), together with voting for local weather change and gun security laws.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has traditionally supported Republican candidates, gave Allred certainly one of solely 4 of its Democratic endorsements within the 2022 Home election, citing his help for “free enterprise and the American enterprise neighborhood,” and the AFL-CIO union group says he has voted on the aspect of unions 100% of the time since he took workplace.
On undocumented immigrants, a significant sticking level for Texas voters, Allred has referred to as former President Donald Trump’s border wall “racist,” advocated for offering a authorized pathway to citizenship for immigrants presently residing within the U.S. illegally and led a push towards a Texas invoice that successfully banned sanctuary cities.
Allred has referred to as Texas’ abortion ban “merciless” and co-sponsored the Ladies’s Well being Safety Act, which might codify Roe v. Wade and make the proper to abortion a federal regulation.
Contra
Allred faces a steep uphill battle in Texas, the place Republicans are anticipated to have a major edge—at the same time as Democrats hope to make the state extra aggressive and suburban areas shift away from the GOP. Beto O’Rourke got here inside 2.5 share factors of unseating Cruz in 2018, however in the end misplaced to the sitting senator, and many of the state’s different current Senate races have been received by Republicans by giant margins.
What To Watch For
Nationally, Democrats are in search of to keep up their slim Senate majority this yr. A number of seats held by Democrats are in weak swing states that Republicans hope to select up, whereas only a few weak GOP seats are up for reelection.
Large Quantity
28. That is what number of years it has been since a Democrat received a statewide election in Texas.
Key Background
Allred was born in Texas and raised by a single mom who labored as a public faculty trainer. He was class president at Hillcrest Excessive Faculty in Dallas and performed soccer at Baylor College. From there, he performed for a number of years as an NFL linebacker earlier than an damage ended his skilled sports activities run and he returned to regulation faculty, beginning a profession in civil rights regulation. He labored on the Division of Housing and City Growth throughout Barack Obama’s presidency and ran for Congress in Texas’ thirty second District in 2018. He defeated 22-year Republican incumbent Pete Periods, and ran for reelection twice earlier than declaring his intention to problem Cruz.
Stunning Truth
Allred was the primary member of Congress identified to take paid paternity depart, based on the Texas Tribune. He took two weeks off in 2019 when his first son was born after which nearly a month off in 2021 for the delivery of his second little one. Allred is a supporter of nationwide paid household depart.
Tangent
Allred has been supported by Democrats nationwide since declaring his Senate intentions and had raised greater than $18.4 million by the center of February, The New York Instances reported, exponentially larger than the $1.3 million Gutierrez, the second most-popular Democratic main candidate, raised. On the finish of 2023, Allred out-raised Cruz by a margin of $4.8 million to $3.4 million between October and December. Cruz presently has about $6.5 million in his marketing campaign account, based on OpenSecrets. In relation to reputation, Allred was seen as favorable by 50% of Democrats in a February ballot by the Texas Politics Challenge, however solely 11% of Texas Republicans, a majority of whom (44%) stated they did not know him or had no opinion. Cruz was seen as very or considerably favorable by 73% of his celebration in the identical report, with 70% of Democrats calling him considerably or very unfavorable.
Additional Studying