Texas Democrats running for U.S. Senate focus their campaigns on Trump, messages against political corruption
The two Democrats running for U.S. Senate say they agree with people who say the political system in Washington, D.C. is rigged against them. In a video launching his campaign July 1, former Democratic Congressman Colin Allred of Dallas said he planned to run against the political corruption. He repeated that theme during an interview for Eye On Politics. "I know that Washington is broken. I know that our system is rigged. I know what we need to do to unrig it."
Retired NASA Astronaut and U.S. Air Force fighter pilot, Colonel Terry Virts launched his campaign for U.S. Senate in late June. In an interview for Eye On Politics, he told CBS News Texas that the political system is unfair to a lot of people. "Especially young people today have just given up on the system" said Virts.
"They think it's completely rigged. So, we need to build a system that's fair. Of course, people need to pay their taxes. Of course, wealthy people need to pay their taxes. Trump has been going out of his way to make sure that wealthy people don't have to pay their taxes."
In a poll released by the Texas Politics Project at UT Austin last month, political corruption topped the list of concerns by Texans. Overall, 17 percent said that's the biggest problem facing the state, which is more than inflation and prices and immigration and border security. When it comes to Democrats, 31 percent said this is the number one issue. Dr. Joshua Blank, Research Director at the Texas Politics Project spoke to CBS News Texas about the poll and its impact on the political campaigns. Blank told Jack that usually Democrats are split between issues such as climate change, gun control, education, abortion policy, and others. "With Donald Trump entering office, what you see is the Democrats have essentially all been focused on Donald Trump," Blank said.
"Even though we've just had a Texas legislative session in which Texas Government has been front and center. The President inserted himself into that session. Repeatedly, he endorsed both the Lieutenant Governor and the Speaker of the House during the sessions for their next election. He got involved in the voucher debate. He's called for the Legislature to come back and redistrict, and so ultimately the closeness with which Texas Republican officials are, you know, cultivating with the President for their own voters is actually turning off a lot of Democratic voters here in the State. And again, there's really nothing that unifies democratic voters like Donald Trump. And that's what you're seeing in those numbers right now. And it's something that I think you know Democratic candidates, including, you know, obviously here former Congressman Allred, are looking to capitalize on."
Three other Democrats are considering entering the race: former Congressman Beto O'Rourke of El Paso, U.S. Representative Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, and State Representative James Talarico of Austin. The winner of the Democratic primary will face either Republican incumbent John Cornyn who is seeking a fifth term or Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who's ahead in the early polls among Republican primary voters.
After Allred's loss to Senator Ted Cruz in November by eight and a half percentage points, Virts told Jack that he doesn't believe Allred can win the primary. "What we need to do is not do the same thing over hoping for a different result." Virts said he has respect and voted for Allred in the last election but said, "If you lose a Senate race you don't win again."
Blank said he doesn't believe that is historically the case. "Now it's the fact that candidates don't run multiple times ," said Blank. "Part of the issue here has been the fact that someone, like Allred normally, would essentially run once for statewide office and then go off into his law practice or something else. With that all the experience that he gained running the first time, and that goes beyond just the experience of being a campaigner which is important, but also the lists he's built, the infrastructure. He has the knowledge he has from running one time that he can apply to the next race. Really, the criticism has actually been the Democrats aren't running often enough in some ways, that there's too much reticence among people like the Castros, maybe amongst less so Beto O'Rourke, but amongst maybe a Wendy Davis to essentially just run again."
Allred told CBS News Texas he's not taking anything for granted. "I don't expect anyone to support me based on the last election or anything like that. I want to earn folks' votes in this election about what I'll do... There are some things that we absolutely have to do differently from the last election, but also that I think most Texans are sitting there hoping that somebody's going to talk about what's going on in their lives and will have plans to try and help them get ahead. That's what I think they're going to make their decision based on."
Candidates can begin filing their paperwork to run in the March 2026 primary on Saturday, November 8. The deadline is Monday, December 8.
