In a significant political development, US Rep. Colin Allred has emerged victorious in the Democratic primary in Texas, according to projections by CNN. Allred, who outperformed state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and seven other contenders, is now set to challenge Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. By securing over 50% of the votes, Allred has successfully bypassed an automatic primary runoff in May.
This comes six years after then-Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s near-successful attempt to unseat Cruz, which saw record-breaking fundraising. Texas Democrats, who have been striving to secure their first statewide win since 1994 in the nation’s largest red state, are hopeful yet again.
However, recent history paints a less optimistic picture for the Democrats. Republican Sen. John Cornyn secured a comfortable 10-point reelection victory in 2020, and GOP Gov. Greg Abbott defeated O’Rourke by 11 points in the 2022 governor’s race. Similar margins have been observed in down-ballot statewide contests.
The silver lining for Texas Democrats in 2022 was the party retaining two of the three competitive House seats in the Rio Grande Valley. Texas, along with Florida, could potentially offer Democrats their best opportunity to go on the offensive under the 2024 Senate map.
The party is also tasked with defending a number of seats in states likely to favor Trump in the presidential race, including Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia, as well as presidential battlegrounds like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Allred, a former NFL player who first won his Dallas-area seat by defeating a Republican incumbent in a fiercely contested 2018 race, has been vocal about health care issues, including his support for the Affordable Care Act and abortion rights. Allred has also proven to be a formidable fundraiser, outpacing Cruz by raising $4.8 million to Cruz’s $3.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2023, and ending the year with $10.1 million in the bank compared to Cruz’s $6.2 million.
Gutierrez, a seasoned state lawmaker from San Antonio known for his advocacy for gun restrictions following the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, his district, positioned himself as a more progressive alternative to Allred. He was widely considered the most serious challenger to the third-term congressman in the nine-person Democratic field.
On the other hand, Cruz managed to easily surpass two relatively unknown Republican primary challengers in his bid for a third term.