Texas Dem Colin Allred Vs. Ted Cruz: What If Texas Voters Found Their Minds?

Are Texans finally tired of their embarrassing part-time senator?

Video screenshot via Colin Allred for Senate on YouTube

In yesterday’s primary election in Texas, Rep. Colin Allred won the Democratic nomination against also-great-guy state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who was motivated to run for national office by the 2022 Uvalde massacre but will have to try again — he probably has a shot at a House seat down the line.

Now Allred, a former sportsball player elected to Congress in 2018, will go up against Ted Cruz and his money machine, hoping to be the first Democrat to win statewide in Texas since 1994, ouch. Beto O’Rourke came close in 2018, losing to Cruz by just 2.6 percentage points, but despite being arguably the most insufferable person in the Senate, Cruz’s job approval rating, at 48 percent, remains higher than his 39 percent unfavorable score. And he’s probably written “Don’t skip town for Cancun during an ice storm” on his palm in indelible marker, too.

Then again, Cruz still suffers from the impediment of being Ted Cruz, and Allred, who’s a bit more centrist than Beto, may succeed in winning over voters by being decent where Cruz is constantly nasty. At his victory party in Dallas, Allred complimented Gutierrez for running a “classy” campaign and focusing on the issues, drawing a contrast with Cruz, who he said was a “me-guy.”

Allred, who could become Texas’s first-ever Black senator if he beats Cruz, noted his own work as a civil rights lawyer and invoked Martin Luther King Jr. — but not the one line that Repuplicans think was all King ever said:

"So I have to talk about Dr. King," Allred said. "He said that the ultimate measure of a leader isn't where they stand in moments of comfort and convenience, where they stand in the most challenging moments. We know where Ted Cruz stands when those moments come. When 30 million Texans are freezing in the dark. He decided to go to Cancun. When our democracy was under attack, he was hiding in the supply closet."

Yeah, Allred remembers January 6, 2021, pretty vividly.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram also singled out Allred’s likability as a distinct asset in going up against Cruz:

If people vote for the person they’d like to have a beer with, would you rather have a beer with a former professional football player from Baylor or the guy who was a Princeton debate whiz?

Well, and a smarmy little jerk, too, don’t forget that. But a smarmy little jerk who’s had some success in rabblerousing about the border like every other Republican this year, including those who are thousands of miles from it. Cruz was also a central figure in the GOP effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election, so he’s got the deplorable vote sewn up.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s escalating cold civil war against the United States on immigration policy will no doubt play a role in the Senate race too, and while it seems likely to motivate the crazies to turn out, it’s hard to say how far Abbott and Cruz can push the issue without sparking a backlash. Sadly, probably pretty far. Same for the state’s weaponization of culture wars hatred of LGBTQ+ people, “critical race theory,” and calls to purge schools of books that kids actually want to read. It would be nice to think that Texas is on the verge of its “we’re not gonna take it” moment, as we’ve seen in places where voters have repudiated the Mad Moms, but Texas may not be there just yet.

But it’s also a long time until November. Cruz may forget to actually stop talking on one of his three weekly podcasts (yes, three), or another storm might make him seek a more comfortable location. Maybe everyone will just suddenly realize he’s evil, you never know.

It’s going to be a long difficult fight. But Colin Allred seems like the kind of guy who can carry it off, just maybe. We bet if you could spare his campaign a few bucks he’d put ‘em to good use.

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[Texas Tribune / Star-Telegram / Business insider]

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