Representative Colin Allred, a Democrat from the Dallas region who won his seat in 2018 by defeating a Republican incumbent, declared on Wednesday that he would run against Texas Senator Ted Cruz.
Colin Allred promises to Texans on Wednesday that they will no longer have to feel humiliated by their senator as he releases a video announcing his run for the Senate in 2024.
Allred, a former civil rights attorney who formerly played linebacker in the National Football League, presented himself as a bipartisan politician who could overcome challenges because of his working-class background. Since the 1990s, no Democrat has been elected to a statewide office in Texas.
Allred took video from the January 6, 2021 incident, in which a mob of Donald Trump supporters overran the US Capitol and attempted to prevent the official declaration of Joe Biden’s victory.
The Dallas Democrat’s opening strike included criticism of Cruz for allegedly encouraging rioters on January 6 before running away from them, preferring to “whip up phony culture wars” rather than dealing with actual issues and leaving Texas during a deadly blizzard to seek refuge in Cancun.
“When the mob stormed the Capitol, he cheered them on before hiding in a supply closet. However, that’s Ted for you. All hat, no cattle,” said Allred. Cruz deemed those accusations to be false.
He asserted, “The accusations are false, and they’re silly,” pointing out that the accusing video wasn’t from January 6 and wasn’t even intended for rioters.
Cruz recalled saying, “That was me at a voter turnout rally in Georgia” on January 4, urging Georgians to vote in the US Senate runoff the next day. He added, “I was telling voters don’t go quietly into the night, show up and vote. For a Democrat to deliberately twist that is dishonest. Now, I don’t expect the media to fact-check it.”
I’m running for U.S. Senate because Texans deserve a Senator whose team is Texas. Ted Cruz only cares about himself.
Join our campaign today: https://t.co/2dROrrQrPV pic.twitter.com/9iz9yu1rFb
— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) May 3, 2023
Cruz also dismissed the claim that he hid in a closet as incorrect.
To further counter Allred’s remarks, Cruz stated at the Capitol, “It’s not surprising that a Democrat starts his campaign with personal insults.”
“He is not allowed to discuss his record or policy. He is unable to discuss substantive issues. So I predict that this very partisan Democrat will use a lot of insults.… I have no plans to give back. But I’ll speak about the policies he supports that are bad for Texans,” Cruz commented.
The 40-year-old Allred is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus and serves on the House committees on transportation and foreign relations, as well as the recently established GOP-led select committee on “the weaponization of the federal government.”
Allred was elected to Congress for the first time in an unexpected victory over Republican incumbent Pete Sessions in 2018. Allred is a lawyer and former linebacker for the Tennessee Titans. By more than 30%, Allred won reelection to a third term in the House in November. He stands for a part of the Dallas region.
On the other hand, Cruz first won a Senate seat in 2012. He defeated Democrat Beto O’Rourke’s challenge in 2018 and won reelection by less than 3 percentage points. Cruz also sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, but after coming in second place in the Indiana primary, he decided to call it quits and eventually endorsed Trump.
Cruz has supported the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade while in office, voted against a bill to protect same-sex marriages and marriages between people of different races, voted against gun control legislation, and advocated for repealing the Affordable Care Act.
The Democrats will have difficulty defending eight seats in states that favored Trump or narrowly backed Biden in the 2020 presidential election because of the harsh Senate map for 2024. According to University of Texas polling, Cruz has experienced declining approval ratings; thus, Texas represents the Democrats’ best chance to pick up a seat, even though it is still a long shot.
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