My head is going to do battle with my heart as I watch a possible political donnybrook unfold in Texas during the next year.
In one corner stands Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican who damn near lost his re-election bid in 2018 to Beto O’Rourke. In the other stands Texas U.S. Rep. Colin Allred from nearby Dallas, who has cruised to re-election twice since upsetting GOP Rep. Pete Sessions in 2018.
Cruz and Allred might be running against each other in the fall of 2024.
Cruz will be nominated by Texas Republican voters. Allred’s nomination remains nominally in doubt, as he faces a possible opponent in state Sen. Roland Guiterrez, who is running in response to the GOP’s failure to do anything in reacting the hideous massacre in Uvalde.
Let’s presume — if I dare — that Allred will be nominated in the event he decides to declare for the contest.
That’s when the head vs. heart conflict kicks in.
My head tells me that Cruz will be difficult to beat in this still-heavily Republican state. My heart wants Allred to send Cruz packing.
Ted Cruz has been a ghastly representative for the state. He seems to have zero friends in the Senate, even among his fellow Republicans. He is arguably the most intensely partisan member of the upper legislative chamber. He also — without question — is its most obnoxious.
Many of us Texans never will forget — nor should we — that magical moment when Cruz decided to head for Cancun while Texans were freezing to death in February 2021. He then decided to blame his young daughter for talking him into taking the family for a little surf and sun.
The guy is a disgrace. Someone has to look long and hard to find a single piece of constructive legislation that the Cruz Missile has authored. They won’t find any.
Meanwhile, Rep. Allred has shown some serious bipartisan chops in working with his Republican colleagues in the House.
Colin Allred flipped a House seat from Republican to Democrat in 2018. We might get to see if he can repeat the feat in 2024 by turning a Senate seat into one that puts Texans first.