Election 2024: Here are the Texas candidates running for US Senate
Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Ted Cruz who is seeking reelection to a third six-year term.
Allred, a three-term Dallas congressman who is foregoing a reelection bid in a safe Democratic district, is seeking to unseat Cruz, who as Texas' junior senator enjoys near-universal name recognition in the nation's most populous Republican state.
Texas has not elected a statewide Democrat since 1994 and the state has landed in the Republican column in every presidential election since 1980.
Despite the uphill climb, the 41-year-old Allred is banking on building on the gains made six years ago by Democratic former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke of El Paso who came within 2.6 percentage points of upsetting Cruz's bid for a second term.
And despite electoral history being on the Republican's side, Cruz is showing no sign of overconfidence in his quest for reelection on Nov. 5.
Colin Allred, Democrat, from NFL to public service
A one-time Baylor University football star who had a four-year career as an NFL linebacker for the Tennessee Titans before becoming a civil rights lawyer and running for public office, Allred is giving up the safe 32nd congressional District to pursue a seat in the upper chamber.
"Last month, we (did) 50 stops in 22 cities,” Allred said during an appearance Sept. 7 at an Austin political festival organized by the Texas Tribune. “We also have to have resources to make sure we communicate in the biggest media markets in the country, and also in markets in places that are completely siloed from each other.”
Heading into the final weeks of the campaign, Allred has continued the cautious course he charted more than a year ago when he announced his candidacy. In public appearances and one-on-one interviews, he seldom fails to highlight his bipartisan chops, contrasting them with what he calls the rigid conservatism of Cruz. And the day before his appearance in Austin, Republican former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming used the same venue to endorse Allred and confirm that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was backing him too.
Allred was elected to Congress in 2018, flipping a seat a seat held by 22-year Republican Pete Sessions by about 2.5 percentage points.
Allred, who is married to attorney Alexandra Eber and together they have two young sons, has made the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn the right to an abortion granted under the landmark Roe v. Wade case central to his campaign.
"In Texas, we believe in freedom and that our government should have no role in the personal and private decisions women make with their doctors,” Allred said in a recent news release affirming his support for abortion rights.
Ted Cruz, Republican, conservative senator seeks to broaden base
Cruz, a Harvard-educated lawyer, is hewing to bread-and-butter Republican issues this campaign cycle. He used much of his seven-minute primetime address to the GOP National Convention in July to fault Democratic President Joe Biden's administration for what he called lax border security and immigration policies.
The 53-year-old Cruz is also appealing to Latinos and Democrats. His campaign is running Spanish-language broadcast and digital ads aimed at bringing more conservative Hispanic voters into his camp and has formed an organization called "Democrats for Cruz" that includes present and former elected officials who are backing the incumbent over his challenger.
"I am proud to welcome the support of Democrats across the Lone Star State who have placed their trust in me to continue leading the fight for jobs, opportunities, and security," Cruz, who is among the most conservative members of the Senate, said in a post that has been pinned atop his account on X, formerly Twitter, since the day after he was renominated in the March 5 Republican primary.
In the Senate, Cruz has bucked such Democratic administration priorities as the 2021 trillion-dollar infrastructure bill even though it contained some $30 billion for projects in Texas, and 2022 CHIPS and Science Act that seeks to boost U.S. high-tech manufacturing capability. He also opposed the doomed immigration and border security initiative that had been negotiated by Democratic and Republican lawmakers.
But Cruz has been quick to note that he is capable of working with Democrats. This year, he introduced federal legislation to crack down on so-called deep-fake online revenge porn. Among his cosponsors is Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
And he's made clear his support for former President Donald Trump, who in 2016 bested him for the presidential nomination but in 2018 held a late-campaign rally for Cruz in the effort to blunt the then-surging O'Rouke.
"God bless Donald J. Trump," said Cruz from this year's convention stage, to which the Republican presidential nominee responded by mouthing "Thank you" in the Texan's direction.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Election 2024: Here are the Texas candidates running for US Senate
