Texas Rep. Colin Allred launched this first television ad of his uphill bid to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
Allred, who is serving his third term in a Dallas-area House district, launched a biographical TV spot running in the Houston and Dallas media markets. The campaign is also launching a statewide digital ad that focuses on abortion rights.
The 30-second TV spot details his upbringing in Texas as a child of a single parent. It also highlights his football career playing for Baylor University and in the NFL, and how he became a civil rights lawyer after football.
"And now I'm running for Senate because the freedoms that we believe in as Texans are under attack," Allred says in the ad. "The freedom to vote. The freedom to get an abortion and the medical care that you need. And the freedom to get ahead if you work hard and play by the rules."
The statewide digital ad focuses on abortion right through the lens of Allred's fatherhood.
"I never knew my dad, so from day one I wanted to be there for my wife," Allred said. "Every crucial moment, every check up, every ultrasound."
"Today, women who get unthinkable news can't get life-saving care because politicians like Ted Cruz think they know better," he continued, adding that he was running for Senate "to end this abortion ban."
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Senate Democrats are taking a defensive posture in 2024. The party has to defend 23 incumbents including competitive races in Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They're hoping to go on offense in Texas, a state that has been out of reach for their party for decades.
But Allred, who flipped a competitive district in 2018, had $10 million in the bank ready to take on Cruz, who won reelection in 2018 by less than three percentage points.
Allred will first have to defeat Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez in the primary on March 5.