The Democrat faces strong headwinds running for a statewide election in Texas.
Democratic Rep. Colin Allred announced Wednesday that he will run for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz’s seat in 2024.
Allred, a former NFL linebacker and civil rights lawyer, began his announcement video by highlighting his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. He said he was “ready to take on anyone who came through that door,” while Cruz “cheered on the mob” and “hid in a supply closet.”
“We don’t have to be embarrassed by our senator,” Allred said. “We can get a new one.”
Allred sought to project a bipartisan image in the video that kicked off his campaign, highlighting his collaboration with Republicans on veterans’ issues, trade with Mexico and legislation dubbed the CHIPS Act that aims to spur domestic computer chip manufacturing. He spoke of raising wages and lowering drug prices and displayed news reports of him apparently being the first member of Congress to take paternity leave.
The representative begins his campaign with strong headwinds against him. Texas has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. Then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke came close to ousting Cruz in 2018 — losing by less than 3 percentage points. In the interim, Cruz has sought to tame his image as a conservative flamethrower to appeal to moderates.
In response to Allred’s announcement, Nick Maddux, a spokesperson for Cruz’s campaign, called the Democrat a “far-left radical.”
“Allred wants men to compete in women’s sports, isn’t serious about addressing the crisis at the border, wants to take away law-abiding Texans’ guns, and is soft on punishing murderers,” Maddux said. “Bottom line, Allred is too extreme for Texas.”
Allred addressed the state’s reputation as reliably red in his campaign video.
“Some people say a Democrat can’t win in Texas. Well, someone like me was never supposed to get this far,” he said.
Allred had about $2.2 million in campaign contributions on hand at the end of the first quarter compared to Cruz’s $3.3 million.
He flipped a congressional seat to win his first election to the House in 2018, prevailing in the traditionally Republican suburbs of Dallas. Recent redistricting made his seat more reliably Democratic.
Republicans have already hit Allred for his prior votes on public safety. Mike Berg, a spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, tweeted Monday that Allred voted in favor of reduced sentences for violent criminals, referring to Allred’s vote against a resolution to block an overhaul of the Washington, D.C. criminal code.
Others who Democrats reportedly view as possible contenders for a Senate run are former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro and state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who was a vocal proponent of gun control measures after the elementary school shooting in Uvalde.