new sheriff in town

Bad news for Ted Cruz as Dems appear to have found a rock solid challenger to snatch his U.S. Senate seat

By · 32 comments · Updated on January 26, 2024
Colin Allred standing at a lectern in front of U.S. flags.
Photo via Getty Images

Trump has been relegated to Truth Social, George Santos is off his house committees, and Dr. Oz is as far as ever from that U.S. Senate seat he was vying for. Slowly but surely, the most annoying bits of the right are taking their Ls. Looking ahead to 2024, some are anticipating a huge red state upset against ultra-annoying Texas embarrassment Rafael “Ted” Cruz.

Eleven different Democrats and activists contacted by the Dallas Morning News pointed to U.S. Representative Colin Allred as the possible party selection to challenge the incumbent. Though Allred wouldn’t publicly comment just yet, his office is reportedly contacting donors and strategists across Texas to feel out the climate of a race against Cruz.

Allred’s run would be set to face the same difficulties and advantages as those that faced previous challenger Beto O’Rourke, as both name recognition and some significant bipartisan support in the area. Allred does unfortunately face the added difficulty of anti-Black racist attitudes still pervasive in many parts of the state, but with years of experience in Texas politics under his belt, he’s more than prepared.

Cruz, on the other hand, is just kind of tired. After a second term full of deserting his constituents and having things thrown at him by them, he’s somehow still planning to crawl back for a third — even while un-iroinically submitting his fourth piece of legislation attempting to limit senators like him from serving more than two terms.

Though no Democrat has won a Texas-wide race since 1994, O’Rourke was only 2.6% away from the win in 2018. Cruz’s gaffs in the time since may just hand the difference over to a challenger like Allred.

Related:

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Cruz is trying his best to distance himself from that violently homophobic rumor he helped peddle last year.

Dallas businessman and LGBTQ+ activist Morgan Cox is a big fan of Allred.

“He built a coalition of young people, of old people, people of different races and different backgrounds, straight people, gay people,” he says. “He launched this door-knocking and block-walking campaign that just energized the district. … If a person is able to scale that to a Texas-size campaign, they’re going to be able to give Ted Cruz a run for the money.”

Cox, who sits on the Board of Directors for the Human Rights Campaign, says he’s personally encouraged Allred to run against Cruz.

“He’s proven to be a Democrat that works well in business development and attraction,” he says. “That’s all paramount to Texas’s success and our future growth.”

Finally, he adds, “Colin will run a hell of a campaign.”

Allred has a solid track record on issues affecting LGBTQ+ citizens, with specific focus on the equal rights fights facing transgender youth and victims of conversion therapy.

He even recently celebrated a gay engagement on one of his own constituent tours in Washington:

Related:

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It didn’t take much to convince the court to go against him.

Even with his political heft and confidence behind him, it will be a tough journey to get a Democrat to a statewide win in Texas.

“It’s still incredibly difficult for a Democrat to win,” says Rice University political scientist Mark Jones. “Last year, even the weakest member of the Republican herd, Ken Paxton, won his race.”

Jones notes that even though he’d be competing for campaign dollars against other races thought to be more “winnable” in 2024, he’s one of the best hopes the party has of taking the senate seat.

“The only way to win statewide is for people like Colin Allred to start running,” he explains.

Cox contends that the bigger problem facing Allred’s chances is voter inactivity.

“You’ve got to have a better investment in voter infrastructure,” he says of Democrats. “I think we continue to be a nonvoting state. If we’re able to invest in an effort that really gets voters off the sidelines and gets them engaged, along with an amazing candidate that does the hard work and has the right message, a Democrat can win.”

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