No Democrat has won a statewide race in Texas in decades. But conditions are friendlier than ever.

There’s a reason no Democrat has accomplished a statewide victory in Texas since 1994.

Pulling off such an upset would require a uniquely talented politician running an almost perfect campaign. That candidate would need to display discipline, calm and poise. Be telegenic and quick on the feet. The candidate would need to be thoroughly Texan and have an identity infused with elements of the state’s cultural zeitgeist. The person would need to run in a halfway decent national political environment. And even with all of those boxes checked, that rare Democrat would still need to square off against an extraordinarily disliked Republican running a lackluster campaign without much support from the person’s own colleagues.

Enter: Rep. Colin Allred.

Allred’s remarkable debate performance Tuesday spawned a flurry of Instagram slides, TikTok videos and X posts. Both in Texas and nationwide, news feeds have been flush this week with clips of the former professional football player rebuking Sen. Ted Cruz for hiding in a “supply closet” during the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol — a riot by a mob that Cruz himself helped whip up. Others showed him repeatedly referencing the time Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico, as hundreds of Texans died during the middle of a winter freeze, or hammering him on his abortion stance — an issue critical to white female voters who have been abandoning the GOP in droves.

But an impressive debate performance alone is not enough for a Democrat to win a state like Texas. However, polls, fundraising and a changing political climate have all looked promising for Allred. Today, Texas Democrats are in an extraordinary situation, one that has proved elusive over the past three decades: They have an actual chance of winning a statewide race.

69 points

C’mon Texas. You know you hate him. Why vote for him?

When assholes like Rick Scott and Ted Cruz keep winning elections, it illustrates just how fucked this country is.

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16 points

Schilling, a registered Republican from Collier County, helped to expose the $1.7 billion Medicare fraud at Columbia/HCA that brought down several executives and forced Scott’s resignation from the mammoth hospital chain he built.

Florida: “Elect that man running that company!”

Old people can be dumb as fuck.

https://www.tampabay.com/hca-whistleblower-revives-claim-that-scott-knew-of-fraud/2200916/

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8 points
*

He left his dog to freeze and die while he went to Cancun during a power outage. HE TRIED TO KILL HIS DOG

HE TRIED TO KILL HIS DOG

HE TRIED TO KILL HIS DOG

FFFFFUUUUUUUU

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3 points
*

No he didn’t, there was at least one guard taking care of the animal. Don’t make shit up. you’re sensationalizing a situation to create a narrative that isn’t true. He’s bad enough based on the truth. Don’t give the opposition ammunition.

https://nypost.com/2021/02/19/ted-cruz-left-pet-poodle-home-alone-during-cancun-trip-report/

https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9949571077

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2 points
*

So much of this lately. He’s horrible enough. We need critical thinking, too.

Ted Cruz’s seriously terrible policy positions

Ted Cruz Isn’t Crazy – He’s Much Worse

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2 points

It tried to kill its dog. Anything that is that cruel to pets/animals is not human.

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46 points

Do you know how hated you have to be to be the incumbent republican senator from Texas to lose in a general election?

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27 points

“I like Ted Cruz more than the rest of my colleagues. And I hate Ted Cruz.”

– Al Franken

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7 points

I have no proof for this, but I just know in my gut that even his family hates Ted Cruz

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7 points

You’d have to be a miserable son of a bitch. That’s what Republican House Speaker John Boehner thought of Ted Cruz.

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27 points
Deleted by creator
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18 points

I remember similar being said about Beto O’Rourke. In the end he floundered on the rocks of Cruz’s candacy.

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50 points
*

Beto likely lost because he said the stupidest shit that a dem running in Texas could have said (“we will take your guns!”) and it killed his campaign momentum. And even then, he only lost by 2-3%.

To my knowledge, Allred hasn’t shot himself in the foot like that, so there is a real chance for him to win.

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7 points

we will take your guns

I mean, he could have retconned it into asking for their active participation in something requiring guns

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6 points
*

He could have, yes.

Instead, he doubled down on it and continued his campaign essentially with the message “Yes, I really do want to take away certain guns. Vote for me, Texans!”

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2 points

Get your facts straight. Beto did not speak about gun control during his Senate campaign.

The year after he lost the Senate race to Cruz, Beto briefly campaigned for POTUS. It was during his presidential campaign that he brought up removing AR-15s and spoke about gun buyback programs.

Speaking about guns did not cost Beto the Texas Senate race because Beto is not a time traveler.

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17 points

A lot of Republican cans hate Ted Cruz here in Texas. They can’t stand him. They think he’s an ass.

But he’s a Republican and that’s all they fucking see in that booth.

Look at who is in office.

The governor, the Lt. governor, the state AG. They are ALL really terrible people, doing really terrible things. And the Republicans here don’t give a shit.

The problem is getting the left to fucking vote.

And that cunt, Kim Ogg in Houston, endorsed Ted Cruz. (Side note, there’s something rotten in Houston right now though and I have no idea what’s going on. I have NO idea who to trust anymore.)

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