Let the games begin. Senator Ted Cruz isn’t running for president in 2024 but he is running for re-election for his Senate seat. The Republican primary is scheduled for a little shy of one year from now on March 5, 2024. Today you would think it is a couple of months away. Rep. Colin Allred, a Democrat from the Dallas area currently serving in the House of Representatives, announced the launch of his campaign to challenge Cruz. I received two text messages asking for a donation to his campaign this morning. Democrats are much better at texting than Republicans are.

He’s no Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, the darling of progressives and the Hollywood elite across the country. He is a current congressman in a safe Democrat seat in Congress. He has to give up that seat to run against Cruz for the Senate.

Allred, a former NFL player and civil rights lawyer who was first elected to Congress in 2018, has been considering for months whether to take on Cruz. Speculation ramped up last week after it was noted that Allred’s campaign website appeared to be undergoing changes.

Allred was in Richardson on Monday to hold an event highlighting the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan legislation that President Joe Biden signed into law last year to spur domestic semiconductor production. Asked about a potential Senate run by a Dallas TV reporter, Allred declined to answer but criticized Cruz for voting against the CHIPS Act, noting the state’s senior GOP senator, John Cornyn, supported it.

Allred would begin the campaign as a major underdog in a state that has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. Beto O’Rourke ran a surprisingly tight race against Cruz in 2018 — losing by less than 3 percentage points — but Democrats have not come as close since then.

The first 40 seconds of Allred’s 3:11 video on Twitter announcing his campaign is about January 6, 2021. He literally begins his video with footage of 1/6/21 and notes that Cruz hid in a closet that day. Allred, however, wants you to believe he was ready to be a hero – taking off his jacket and ready to put someone on the ground, just like his days on the football field, or something. You get the point. It’s a hero vs. a coward scenario.

I’m running for U.S. Senate because Texans deserve a Senator whose team is Texas. Ted Cruz only cares about himself.

Join our campaign today: https://t.co/2dROrrQrPV pic.twitter.com/9iz9yu1rFb

— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) May 3, 2023

I’ve taken down a lot tougher guys than Ted Cruz, but I can’t do this without your help.

Will you chip in to be a founding donor to my campaign?https://t.co/hkgz9zyvBZ

— Colin Allred (@ColinAllredTX) May 3, 2023

He worked in the Obama administration at HUD, then returned to Dallas to run for Congress in 2018. He flipped Republican Rep. Pete Sessions’ district to a Democrat district with the help of O’Rourke at the top of the ticket that year. National Republicans tried to win back that seat in 2020 but failed to do so. The Texas Legislature redrew the district to be safer for Democrats so Allred easily won his third term. He is a strong fundraiser. He will be competitive with Cruz on that score. Allred ended the first quarter of this year with $2.2M cash on hand. Cruz had $3.3M cash on hand. One of the two text messages I’ve received so far from Allred today said he is trying to raise $500,000 today.

Allred is a classic progressive but he’s smart enough to promote himself as someone who works on a bipartisan basis. Independent voters like that sort of narrative.

Allred’s Senate campaign would likely focus on his bipartisan bona fides. His 2018 victory marked a major breakthrough for Democrats in the traditionally Republican suburbs of Dallas, and the GOP-leaning U.S. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed him in both of his reelection campaigns.

Republicans are already gearing up to take on that image. A spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee tweeted Monday that Allred “voted in favor of reduced sentences for violent criminals,” referring to Allred’s February vote against a resolution to block a controversial overhaul of the Washington, D.C., criminal code.

Cruz’s office was quick to respond to Allred. Cruz spokesman Nick Maddux released the following statement via email:

“Democrats have once again turned to a far-left radical to run for Senate. Not only does Colin Allred vote with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time, but his voting record is completely out-of-touch with Texas. Allred wants men to compete in women’s sports, isn’t serious about addressing the crisis at the border, wants to take away law-abiding Texans’ guns, and is soft on punishing murderers. Bottom line, Allred is too extreme for Texas. Thankfully, the Lone Star State has a tireless champion in Sen. Ted Cruz. For over a decade, Sen. Cruz has been leading the fight for jobs, freedom, and security in Texas. As Senator for Texas, Sen. Cruz will continue to do everything he can to bring more jobs to Texas, fight out-of-control government spending, and support the oil and gas industry from the attacks of Democrats like Joe Biden and Colin Allred.”

So, there we are. It’s important for current Republican senators to hold their seats and pick up seats held by vulnerable Democrats in 2024. It’s time to take back the majority in the Senate and shut down Joe Biden’s agenda, assuming Republicans are not smart enough to run a candidate that will beat Biden in 2024. Republicans will need a majority-GOP Senate working with a Republican House to shut Biden down.