Allred and Texas Dems bundle resources across the ballot

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WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Colin Allred and the Texas Democratic Party are launching a coordinated campaign to consolidate resources for races up and down the ticket, the party and Allred campaign announced Wednesday morning.

The initiative, dubbed “Texas Offense,” will allow candidates down the ballot to share data and information resources, letting different Democratic candidates better coordinate as they knock on doors, call voters and engage in other campaign activities. It’s the party’s first coordinated campaign of its kind focusing on the grassroots in over 20 years. Allred is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Throughout my football career at Baylor and the NFL, I’ve always played defense. But now, along with Texans from all across our state, we are fully on offense to beat Ted Cruz,” Allred said in a statement. “I am a fourth-generation Texan, and no matter what Ted Cruz says, this election is about giving 30 million Texans a Senator who will do the job for all of us. Our grassroots campaign of Texans is ready to win because we cannot afford six more years of Ted Cruz.”

“Texas Democrats are fired up and ready to beat Ted Cruz,” said Gilberto Hinojosa, chair of the Texas Democratic Party. “This is a historic partnership that will help galvanize grassroots excitement for Congressman Allred across our state. One conversation at a time, with Texans talking to Texans – we are going to send Ted Cruz packing.”

Having a coordinated campaign prevents duplicating outreach efforts by different Democratic candidates to the same audiences, said Matt Angle, director of the Lone Star Project.

“In Texas, that's important because you got such a large diverse state,” Angle said. “You’ve got giant urban centers as well as significant suburban areas, and then you've got the rural parts of the state. And so having a framework for people who are coordinating to work efficiently is really important.”

The coordinated campaign does not allow candidates to share money across the board. Candidates for state office face restrictions in sharing financial resources with federal candidates.

Allred will officially unveil the initiative at a Houston rally on Sunday — 100 days before Election Day. Former Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and Amanda Zurawski, an Austin woman who sued Texas over its abortion restrictions and has since become a Democratic campaigner, will both be present.

Allred is facing a Republican incumbent who is running an aggressive campaign and not taking anything for granted. Cruz has warned fellow Republicans against being complacent in the state and has more than twice as much money as he did at the same point in 2018. Cruz won the 2018 race by less than 3 percentage points. Growth of Texas’ suburban and urban centers has made the state even more competitive.

Cruz led a “cul-de-sac tour” to meet with constituents in more intimate settings to highlight his bipartisan legislative achievements. He has also been courting Democratic voters, launching a “Democrats for Cruz” group earlier this year.

“Texas is a battlefield,” Cruz told Texas Republicans during the Republican National Convention this year. “It’s easy to be complacent. One of the real mistakes people make in politics is they have a recency bias. They say well, whatever things have been recently, that’s what it’s going to be forever.”

In response to the launch of Texas Offense, a Cruz campaign spokesperson offered little faith in the initiative.

“With a little over 100 days until Election Day, there is no question that Colin Allred’s last-ditch effort to campaign will fall short," the Cruz campaign said in a statement. "It doesn’t matter how hard they try, the Texas Democrats fall flat on their face every electoral cycle and this time will be no different. While Allred campaigns on Kamala Harris’ radical open borders agenda, Senator Ted Cruz will continue fighting for security, jobs, and freedom to ensure we keep Texas, Texas.”

Texas is a top target for Senate Democrats this year along with Florida. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm, announced it was dedicating resources to the race earlier than in past cycles in a sign of optimism. But the committee must also defend several vulnerable incumbents in otherwise Republican states, including Montana and Ohio, which have been higher in the party’s priorities as it works to maintain its thin majority.

The Democratic consolidation differs from past Democratic statewide campaigns, which were largely solo operations.

“Some candidates have done a better job than others in celebrating and bringing down ballot candidates along and uplifting them alongside what they are doing,” former state Sen. Wendy Davis, who led a widely watched but unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign in 2014, said in an interview. Praising Allred, she added: “I feel like this coordinated effort is a true reflection of how he functions. He is a former football player. He is a team player to his core.”

Some Democratic campaigns for U.S. House have coordinated in the past. U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, a North Texas Democrat, coordinated with other candidates to turn out the Democratic vote in the 1990s, Angle said. But Angle said it was not on a statewide scale.

All Democratic candidates, from state House to U.S. House, tied in through the Texas Democratic Party can benefit from the consolidated resources. That includes Texas’ 15th Congressional District, where Democrat Michelle Vallejo is hoping to unseat the first-term U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz. The race is the most competitive U.S. House race in Texas and is a top target for Democrats.

"This is going to be one of the strongest coordinated campaigns we've ever seen in Texas, and that's where these races are going to be won — on the ground, one block at a time,” Kirby Chandler, Vallejo’s campaign manager, said in a statement.

Similar initiatives have existed in other states. Arizona Democrats seeking to reelect Sen. Mark Kelly launched Mission Arizona during the 2022 cycle to coordinate grassroots efforts. Republicans targeted Kelly as a flip opportunity that year, but he beat Republican Blake Masters by under 5 percentage points.

Pennsylvania’s Democratic Party, which is working to defend Sen. Bob Casey, also has a coordinated campaign including the presidential ticket. That state is a key battleground in the presidential race, unlike Texas where the consolidated campaign will be more home-led.

The project, Davis said, is “led by state and county party officials who know the state incredibly well and who will be able to harness a strategic effort to communicate with voters and turn them out in a way that’s reflective of Colin, his campaign, his priorities and well as those of other candidates on the ballot.”

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