Politics / October 17, 2024
Democrats need to realize that Colin Allred is doing the right thing in his race in Texas, which could give Democrats control of the Senate majority.
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) speaks in a Senate debate with Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) on Tuesday in Dallas.
(Shelby Tauber/Texas Tribune, Associated Press, via Poole)
There’s no question that Donald Trump is losing it. That’s what the former president does when he’s not stunned and reeling from a campaign event that looks more like a failed attempt at performance art than a traditional political rally. claim It means that even a child could do the job of an American auto worker. Somehow, Mr. Trump has become even more of a thorn in the side of the Republican Party than he was before.
But some argue that he is still not as disgraceful as Ted Cruz, whom he defeated in the race for the party’s presidential nomination eight years ago.
Trump established himself in American politics by defeating Cruz, the absurdly self-righteous senator from Texas who was a favorite target of billionaires in the 2016 Republican primary.
Mr. Trump gleefully painted Mr. Cruz as a hypocrite and a liar. The New Yorker portrayed the Canadian-born Texan as something of an outsider. And always dishonest.
“How can Ted Cruz be an evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?” President Trump labeled his rival “Lying Ted.” . His disdain for Mr. Cruz ran so deep that after the senator’s humiliating defeat in the final primary of 2016, Mr. Trump said: But I don’t want his support. What difference does it make? I don’t want his support. Ted, stay home, relax and enjoy yourself. ”
Mr. Trump was right. Seeing no other option, Mr. Cruz supported his rival. But he didn’t stop there. Like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and other Republicans who have previously been fiercely critical of the party’s current three-time presidential nominee, Mr. Cruz has thrown away his personal dignity and clearly He became Trump’s most ardent, if hypocritical, defender.
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That includes Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and Sen. It was clear from the fact that he was trying to overturn his lawyer (Harvard University lawyer). – Became one of the Senate’s most vocal defenders of Trump’s insane attempt to reject the will of the people and the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Cruz’s complete shift in attitude toward Trump and Trumpism is just one example of his blatant disregard for the truth. Mr. Cruz remains politically alive even after revealing himself as the most outrageously pious member of a Legislature with no shortage of arrogance that has elected Democrats to statewide office since 1994. Because it doesn’t represent the state of Texas.
But its viability may be fading. Mr. Cruz is running for a third term and faces a dramatically tighter re-election race than he and Democrats expected at the start of this year’s campaign. Indeed, in a tight race for control of the U.S. Senate, the Texas battle between Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred will determine whether the Democratic caucus retains its House majority. There’s a good chance.
Mr. Cruz’s reckless actions, including a highly embarrassing departure to a luxury resort in Cancun when Texas’ power grid went down in 2021, turned what was supposed to be an easy win into an increasingly dangerous campaign. Ta. Texas polls once gave him a comfortable lead, but now he’s barely trailing, raising nearly $70 million, building a strong grassroots network of supporters, and gaining support from major newspapers from across the state. It is shown that he is slightly ahead of Mr. Allred of Texas IV who won the. And put the incumbent on the defensive. Since September, polls have consistently placed Allred within three to four points of Mr. Cruz. Recent Texas polls show Trump with a wide lead over Democrat Kamala Harris, but Allred has enough support from independents and self-respecting Republicans to close the gap.
And Democrats undoubtedly got a little more closure on Monday night when they faced off against Republicans in a high-stakes debate.
To say Allred shredded Cruz would be an understatement.
When the topic of the incumbent’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election came up, Allred took no prisoners.
“You can’t be on the side of the mob on January 6th, and you can’t be on the side of (police) police officers. You can’t do that,” Democrats said to Republicans’ face. Mr. Cruz tried to laugh off Mr. Allred’s factual statement. But the Democrats silenced him. “That’s not funny, because you’re a threat to democracy.”
“I was in the House floor when we took the vote, and I remember when you objected to the results in Arizona,” Allred said, watching as the Capitol was occupied by Trump supporters. He described the scene. “I know where I’ve been, and I know where he’s been. … I took off my suit jacket and was ready to defend the House chamber from the mob. At the same time, after going around the country lying about the election, Sen. Cruz becomes the architect of a plot to overturn the election, and then when the mob comes, Sen. Cruz is in a supply closet. It was hidden.”
“That’s fine. I don’t want him to be harmed by the mob. I really don’t,” Allred continued, then delivered his winning line in the debate. “This election is about accountability. You can’t just feel patriotic just because your team won. For the first time in 250 years, in this project of ours, in this common American project, we are at peace. If we fail to successfully transfer power, those responsible must be held accountable. That’s why (former Republican U.S. Representative) Liz Cheney is supporting me and joining this campaign to support the world. That’s why I’m telling Texans: Don’t put Ted Cruz back in a position of authority, he’s done it once and he’ll definitely do it again.
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It was the most shocking line of a night in which Allred delivered one rhetorical line after another on issues ranging from abortion rights to immigration to Mr. Cruz’s visit to Cancun.
Mr. Allred closed the debate with a similarly fiery takedown, which may be enough to close the gap in the race that will decide control of the U.S. Senate.
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“We are all Americans and we are all Texans. We need a leader who will unite us around our common values. That’s what I will do in my six years in Congress. That’s the exact opposite of what Sen. Cruz has done. No matter what he says tonight, you’ve seen it for 12 years. He’s alone. If he doesn’t like what’s going on in Washington, well, you know, he’s the one to blame,” Cruz says, shuffling nervously by his side on stage. However, Allred declared. “He introduced a new kind of ‘outrage’ where you just make people angry, podcast about it, write a book about it, make money from it. But when people need you, like when lights out… And you’re not really there when he went to Cancun when 30 million Texans trusted the actions of the United States. If you give me a chance to become a senator, I will never give up on you.”
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John Nichols
John Nichols is The Nation’s national affairs correspondent. He has written, co-authored, or edited more than a dozen books on topics ranging from the history of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyzes of the American and global media systems. His latest book, co-written with Sen. Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller, “It’s Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism.”
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