DALLAS — Now that Congressman Colin Allred unexpectedly and decisively won his U.S. Senate primary outright and avoided a runoff, the Democrat must begin to coalesce support from his eight primary opponents.
“This is where Texas Democrats want to go is they want to have somebody who can bring folks together, who has a proven track record of being independent, of reaching across the aisle, of trying to get things done,” Allred told us on Inside Texas Politics. “Our Democracy is not a spectator sport. It’s one where we all have to be engaged.”
But Allred now faces Republican incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, a formidable challenger who also easily won his primary.
Allred must not only win in ruby red Texas, but he also needs to close an apparent enthusiasm gap by November.
On Super Tuesday, Senator Cruz received 1,974,132 votes. That’s 169,000 more votes than former President Donald Trump received here in Texas. For comparison, Allred got 565,992 votes.
Despite the rhetoric and mood of our country, the Congressman still believes compromise is a winning issue.
“I pride myself on reaching across the aisle and trying to find ways, and trying to find common ground in a way that I think is the exact opposite of Senator Cruz, who I think is one of the most partisan, if not the most partisan, Senators in the country to the extent that when we have a crisis at our border, and we have a package in the Senate to try and address that crisis, he takes that package down, not because of the policies, he agreed with the policies, but because of the politics because he wanted to run on the problem in November,” Allred told us in an early preview of what’s to come.
The primary runoff election will be heldTuesday, May 28.
The general election will be held November 5.