Texas Representatives Colin Allred (D) and Ted Cruz (R) have won the Democratic and Republican primaries shaping the race for Texas Senate into a two-man showdown.
Rep. Allred announced his candidacy for Senate on May 3, 2023. The representative’s main Democratic challenger was current State Senator Roland Gutierrez (D). Sen. Gutierrez was known for his strong rhetoric advocating for stricter gun legislation. Many thought the state senator would win. However, Allred pulled away with the race and will not have to endure a runoff.
Despite being the Republican incumbent, Sen. Cruz faced challenges from two fellow GOP opponents. That said, Cruz still beat his Republican competition. Cruz has faced other hotly touted Democratic competition in the past. One example would be 2018’s matchup with Beto O’Rourke.
Allred and Cruz are on very different sides of the political spectrum, with Allred being a strong Trump critic and Cruz an avid fan of his former political opponent. Allred may be a newcomer, but he has outraised Cruz by nearly $4 million. That said, Cruz still raised plenty of money and has a long list of supporters.
Many Texans have called for Cruz’s removal from office given his various mess-ups such as the infamous trip to Cancun during Texas’s 2021 blizzard power outage in which parts of the power grid shut off. It will be interesting to see how this facet is represented in the elections.
“When Texans were freezing in the dark, he jetted off to Cancun. He’ll do anything to get on Fox News, but can’t be bothered to keep rural Texas hospitals open,” said the civil rights attorney, Allred.
The representative continued, “Spend months trying to whip up phony culture wars, but not a minute trying to raise wages or lower drug prices. The struggles of regular Texans just don’t interest him.”
The two candidates are sure to get a lot of focus in the upcoming election given the state's history and current political landscape surrounding issues like gun legislation and immigration.
