The Man To Beat Ted Cruz
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You're picking up speed in this race. Cruz is sending out increasingly desperate appeals for money and increasingly desperate messages to his allies. Believe me, I'm on that damn list and I can never escape it. I unsubscribe about 20 times a week from the guy. There's no getting away. Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened. There is not a liberal America and a conservative America...

United States of America. Good night and good luck. Hey folks, it's Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project Podcast. We are so excited today to welcome Congressman Colin Allred of the great state of Texas to our show. He is running against probably the most despised member of the Senate, a guy you know and hate, Ted Cruz. But Congressman

But Colin has a distinguished record of his own. He's a terrific public servant, was a terrific athlete, and is a guy who loves his state with an absolute passion and conviction. So I'm delighted to have you on the show today, Colin. I want to start out by asking the big question. Do you know the Ted Cruz rule? No, I don't know the Ted Cruz rule. The Ted Cruz rule is this. There are two types of people in the world, Ted Cruz and people who hate Ted Cruz. But

But now you do. So anyway, I wanted to talk about the race because it has been a race you've been absolutely neck and neck with this guy. You've been bringing a campaign to the state of Texas that a lot of people did not believe that could be run in the state. I like Beto. He's a friend. But it's a different feeling now. What is it that's different about your race right now that's making you so competitive against Ted Cruz?

Yeah, well, thank you, Rick. And thanks for what you've been doing. A lot of the folks who have supported me here in North Texas are big fans of yours. And thank you. Yeah, I appreciate what y'all are doing, because, you know, I think it's also part of the same effort that we've been engaged in here for some time, which is building a coalition that's a little bit different than probably years past. And certainly as somebody who has represented George W. Bush the last few years, I can tell you that

you know, this is a different time. And what we built here, I think is, you know, a coalition that has everyone from Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and local respected Republicans here in North Texas and across the state of Texas to, you know, our progressive folks who were trying to, of course, you know, help turn out the vote and things like that. Sure. And it's a, it's a fundamentally pro-democracy coalition. It's one that I think recognizes that we can do a lot better than Ted Cruz and

And this is the way I got elected to Congress. And I won in a seat by beating a 22 year incumbent who really nobody thought could be beaten. And I think it's also the same thing is going to happen here where I think a lot of folks won't expect it up until the last moment. And then when we win, it'll probably be a shock to folks. But in some ways, it shouldn't be.

So you've been beating the doors down around the state. You've been doing a lot of traveling. What is the thing you're hearing the most about when you're out on the stump talking to people? Yeah, I mean, I think there's issues, of course. And I think this abortion ban is touching every part of Texas life. Sure. And that's a big deal. And we still have work to do on the economy, lowering costs. And people talk to me a lot about housing.

Those are all important. Medicare, Social Security, all the kind of basics, health care. But then there's also the personalities involved, which is that every Texan, I think, pretty much knows that Ted Cruz is only looking out for himself. Sure. And I think what they're wondering is.

Does the alternative to him, is it one that I can share values with and that I think, you know, that I can get on board with? And this was one who understands who we are as Texans. And there, that's what we've been making sure the folks know, because, you know, I'm a fourth generation Texan. You know, I've been the most bipartisan, you know, Democratic from our here in Texas and most bipartisan Texan period in Congress. And I've been proud of my record, you know, of working across the aisle, but also of understanding who we are.

and what our economy is based on, what our values are here in Texas, and a lot better than Ted Cruz does, certainly. And somebody who won't abandon us when the lights go out. Well, and that's one of those things where, to my mind, look, I've known Ted Cruz since 2000, and he's never really changed all that much. He's a guy who cares about Ted Cruz. He's about the Ted Cruz brand more.

A former supporter of his recently said to me, you know, he goes, I call the guy a part-time senator and now a full-time podcaster. He doesn't really appear to really care about anything other than the sort of, you know, MAGA transactional, like I want to get on Fox because I said something outrageous. It's not really about constituents in the state at all anymore. He feels very distant from Texas in a lot of ways. He's become a, you know, a guy who doesn't, who doesn't really feel like

um, the issues of the state, as you pointed out, like when the lights go out, Ted goes to Cancun, um, and things like the power grid don't seem to really be high on Ted's list. No, they're not. And you know, when Liz Cheney was with me in Dallas campaigning, I think she might've been on that campaign in 2000 with y'all. Um, she was saying that she's known him for, you know, about the same amount of time. Uh, and that the thing she knows about Ted Cruz is that he's one of the most selfish people she's ever come across in her life, you know? And, uh,

And public service is not about that, man. I mean, it's just not. That's right. I'm a football player by trade. I was captain of the team at Baylor. That's right. I think the thing about football is you have to understand that you are part of a group and you're no more important than anybody else.

And that we're all pulling in the same direction. If anybody isn't pulling their weight, then the whole unit's going to fall down. And I think he certainly never has understood that. But there are important investments that happen here in Texas that have happened in spite of him.

And, you know, I want to say that, you know, Senator Cornyn and I have some points of disagreement. But we've worked together on a number of really important bills for our state that I've supported, that Cornyn has supported, and that Cruz has voted against. And that are bringing, you know, billions of dollars of investment, like the Chips and Science Act, for example. You know, we're benefiting massively from this for high-tech manufacturing coming to Texas. You know, that was something that Cornyn worked on, that I worked on, that Cruz was against.

I think it's also what showed up was in my family's from Brownsville, Texas, the very tip of the border. My grandfather was a customs officer there. And I take it very seriously that when we don't act at the federal level, our border communities kind of bear the brunt of that.

And so when we did have this bipartisan bill, which took too long to come up, but it came up, right? To have $20 billion for border security, 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, more immigration judges to deal with our backlog, technology for fentanyl. I jumped right on and said, we've got to get this done. That's the final way to get this done. And Cruz said, we don't need to have a border bill.

But then he wants to run around and say that this is one of our biggest issues. But obviously, what he's really saying is that he's more important than Texas. And I think Texans are starting to understand that. And that's what we've got to make sure in this final stretch that they get. And I think that's one thing that I actually had on my list of things to talk to you about is that you supported the border bill. You understood what it would mean for Texas and for other border states, but Texas in particular because you guys have the longest exposure. But it would have addressed some of these trafficking problems.

It would have addressed fentanyl. It would have addressed additional resources for the folks who are here who have to be processed, whether they're going to stay and try to get asylum or whether they're going to have to be sent back. We would have been able to handle that problem a lot more efficiently for Texas had that bill that you were a big proponent of passed. Ted Cruz didn't want it because Donald Trump didn't want it. They wanted a political issue, not a solution. That's right.

I think even in Texas, considered a conservative state, a red state, I'm sensing this not only there but in other places. People are tired of just the performance art. They want to get stuff done. They want to get things accomplished. And I feel like that was a bill that you should be very proud of having pushed because it was definitely not – it was definitely not –

Not what every Democrat wanted in the beginning. That's right. That's right. And a lot of Democrats complained about it. But it was so important that everybody said, we're going to do this. And that it was killed by Trump and guys like Ted Cruz. Yeah.

Yeah, that's right. I mean, you know, listen, I think the folks should know that what we've been dealing with has been largely an asylum crisis and that about 90 percent or so of the folks who are seeking asylum who come to the southern border are going to be rejected. But it's going to take six, seven, eight, nine, sometimes 10 years for them to get that rejection because our backlog is so unbelievably large.

You know, enormous and we don't have the resources to get through it. And and so if you want to talk about, you know, how do we limit this? How do we fix this crisis? We got to not just have, you know, changes that the executive order did in terms of trying to block who's coming. But we got to deal with the backlog that's here. And that's what we're trying to do.

There's also, and I think that most folks who aren't talking to Border Patrol agents won't know this, among our Border Patrol, there's kind of a mental health crisis growing. They've been working a lot of overtime. Sure. They have been asked to work away from their home stations. And a lot of them have seen horrible things. And they're dealing with increasing complexity of these operations.

of the cartels on the other side that, you know, some of them are pushing migrants, some of them are pushing fentanyl, but they're, they're, the complexity is increasing. They need more personnel. And we had a thousand border patrol agents in this bill. And like folks should know this. I mean, this is a big deal. We're saying let's put the money into this because we know we got to have the personnel, the technology, the resources and the policy changes.

And I just think it's inexcusable not to support it. I mean, this is the right thing to do for the country. And we're going to pick it back up and pass it, I think, after this election. I think that'll be after we beat Ted Cruz. But, I mean, this is what we have to do. And we have to have serious people who want to do it. As you know, Rick, I mean –

Cruz took down the bipartisan effort back in 2013 when President Obama and the Gang of Eight were trying to pass an immigration bill. I mean, this is not the first time he's taken down an immigration bill. Yeah, it is something I think that is, for the people of Texas, that would have made a meaningful difference. And again, he's a guy who really doesn't care.

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Texas has now passed some of the most stringent abortion laws in the country, and women are paying a terrible price for this. Talk to us about what you're hearing out there in the field, because I know from surveys we've done and surveys we've had access to in Texas, there are an awful lot of Republican and independent women and men who are very uncomfortable with how far Texas has taken the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how the legislature has put women in a very, very tough position.

Yeah, I mean, I think the reality of this is that it's so much more brutal and inhumane than probably anyone could have imagined because we did say these things, but that any of our normal Texans would thought would ever happen in our state.

And these folks, as I say, they've kind of lost their minds. The fact that they put Texas women in this position and Texas families. My wife and I have had two boys not far from here, 10 minutes from where I'm sitting right now here in Dallas in the last five years. And you go into every one of those appointments, you just hold your breath. You just hope that they say that everything looks good, everything's fine with the pregnancy. There's so many things that can happen.

And I know everybody knows this as a parent, but what Texas women and families are hearing now is there's a problem. Instead of hearing, here's the plan to make sure you're okay, they're hearing, there's nothing I can do because Ted Cruz thinks he knows better. And so you're either going to have to leave our state if you have the resources to do that, which a lot of folks don't. A lot of folks don't. Or you might have to go through something really difficult where you might lose your ability to ever have children of your own. Right.

There are women like my friend Amanda Zyrowski, and she and her husband Josh were going to have their first child. They'd already named her. They were starting to put things in the crib and to be prepared for this baby to come. And she started to have a severe miscarriage, and she was denied care so long until she went septic that she then got an infection and may never be able to have children of her own. She was in the hospital for days.

This is not who we are. And I think that we've had to make sure that Texans know this, because at the beginning of this process, it was clear to us that not every Texan knew how extreme this ban Cruz is responsible for was. And so I think we've been making sure they know that we've had Texas women telling their stories.

How this is impacting real families. The 26,000 Texas women have been forced to give birth to their rapist child since this law came down. And this is horrific and it's not freedom. And Rick, I think you know, I mean, we believe in freedom here in Texas. This is not it. Yeah, it's ironic that the small government party wants a big government to monitor what women are doing and control their lives at a level like this.

And we're going to play this game until a certain number of women die in this country. And I think the political consequences are already going to be terrifying. They're laid on top of the personal consequences for these women and their families. We're going to play this during the podcast. We'll put it in after we record. You've got a terrific new ad out right now about this issue. We're going to play it now, and we'll come back on the other side and pick it up.

I'm Colin Allred and I approve this message. She would have been our third baby. My second. Our first. Our second and third baby. Our baby would never survive. And now my life was on the line. And the care we needed was denied. Because of Ted Cruz and the extremist abortion ban. A ban with no exception for rape, incest or our health. If you're experiencing pregnancy complications in Texas, you're in danger. It's that simple. And it's Ted Cruz and the anti-abortion extremists' fault.

So, Colin, what was the origin story of that ad? Well, you know, listen, I think this is all about having Texas women tell their stories. And I think that what's been really powerful is to have so many brave Texans come forward and talk about what they've been through. And, you know, I think that there's nothing that's more powerful than that.

And so the idea here is just make sure the Texans know just how extreme Ted Cruz is on this, how he's put us in this position, how he's uniquely responsible for this abortion ban. He put the judges on the various levels at the federal level, but he also backed in primaries, Rick, here in Texas, the most extreme candidates, often against kind of the establishment Republicans here in Texas,

to try and get this extreme legislator in place to then pass these laws. He called for and celebrated the Dobbs ruling. He said it was a massive victory. And, you know, he's somebody who wants to go further. He's introduced five national abortion ban bills. And so we have to make sure the Texans know that. And also that when I'm in the Senate, that will restore Roe v. Wade. We'll go back to the standard that we've had for the last 50 years. This is not complicated. There's no fear mongering they can do around this. Folks know what that standard was. And this is what we have to get back to.

I think that's right. And I think that's one of the reasons your campaign has actually made a lot of breakthroughs with more independent and moderate voters in the state of Texas, because you've offered them something that is it's not radical progressivism. It's not something that's out of like the Fox News fantasy catalog. It's going back to the thing that was the law of the land for 50 years that maybe not everybody was comfortable one way or the other with it. But it but it largely functioned.

as a balancing test in the country. So you're picking up speed in this race. Cruz is sending out increasingly desperate appeals for money and increasingly desperate messages to his allies. Believe me, I'm on that damn list and I can never escape it. I unsubscribe about 20 times a week from the guy. There's no getting away. But you are now in a state that is no longer a solid red state. The Texas that is evolving is

is the one you're running in now. The Texas that is changing is the one you're running in now. Where are you campaigning the most? Where are you putting your emphasis right now? Because I mean, as a political hack, if I was you, I'd be in Houston getting the turnout jacked up there as high as I possibly could. But talk to us about where you're campaigning and what you're focusing on in the last 20 some days of this campaign.

Yeah, I mean, you're right, of course. I mean, I think it's one in six of our voters are in Harris County. So that's where Houston is. I mean, so there's no simple math there, right? Like that's a huge part of our focus.

You know, I'm going to Lubbock tomorrow. We've been all over the state. I was just in Corpus Christi yesterday. We have pockets of populations in Texas that are bigger than big cities in other states. And we have some of the biggest metros you can possibly come across. We have more people in VW than you have in all of Arizona. Right. So it's just it's just a massive place. And so we have to do the turnout and we have to get our folks at the vote. And we've been building this for some time.

this effort to try and, uh, make sure that we can have a more reflective turnout of our state. Cause as you probably know, Rick, we've been a non-voting state really. And we're trying to turn that around. Yeah. And the turnout's been low and, and especially in our big cities where we know when the turnout comes out, that it is likely to be our turnout. That's what it has been, what we want it to be. So we're doing that, but we're also, you know, we're still trying to make sure that we can win these folks who, uh,

you know, kind of your Bush Republicans, your McCain Republicans, you know, folks who feel like they don't see themselves reflected in Cruz's values. And we've had a lot of success there. And we've had some very, very influential Texans who are Republicans here who have come over and endorsed me and publicly gotten involved. And that's something that I haven't really seen here in Texas in the past. And

it is a different coalition. And so it's exciting. The final stretch here, we have a debate coming up on the 15th. Everybody should try to tune into that. You can, I think you can go to our website at Colin all red.com. If you want to sign up to come knock on doors or make phone calls, that'll be important as well. But this is the, obviously the final stretch and we've been planning for this and we were in what I call a margin of effort race within the margin of errors. We got to, we got to put in the effort.

Maximum effort from here on. And you've got a fairly large volunteer base, I'm told, that is actually doing the door knocking, doing the work. The DSC has finally come in a little bit for you guys. They seem to be helping. And you had a really meaningful quarter to give you the fuel and the tank to go and fight this battle, right? Yeah.

Yeah, we raised over $30 million. This is, I think, now going to be the most expensive Senate race in Texas history. Although, who knows what LBJ actually spent back when he was running back in the day. I don't think he kept track of what he was actually spending. I think a lot of it was his brown paper bags and

shoe boxes. Exactly. Yeah. As somebody who's read the Robert Caro books, I'm not sure that we'll ever know. Um, but you know, we've done well on that side of it, but as again, we have to, because you know, we're three times the size of Michigan. Uh,

And, you know, we have more people, as I said, in the Houston metro than we do in all of Arizona. And and so, you know, this is it's a massive state. And that's been one of the hurdles that we've had is that in order to compete here, you have to have the resources to make sure that so many folks you can get in front of them. And the the turnout operation that we have is one that I'm really excited about because we're running a coordinated campaign, which I know.

Probably sounds silly to folks in other states, but we haven't done it really since the Ann Richards days in Texas on the Democratic side. And so it's going to help us be much more efficient with our get out the vote efforts. And, you know, we're rolling. And so now folks should just, you know, get involved with us.

Obviously, there's a lot of reasons to get rid of Ted Cruz. And I think we don't spend too much time on it. But I will be one of those people in the Senate who I'll be if there's a gang of six or a gang of eight working on a hard problem, trying to figure out a solution to it that can get both parties involved. I will be one of those senators and I'll be somebody who I think folks can look to who can help keep the balance of our country and also bring us back to some of our fundamental values and not put us against each other. And I think this is a time for everybody to come out for that.

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Texas was a great state for many generations that produced centrist Democrats and centrist Republicans who were in what I call the getting shit done category, where they wanted to take on problems. They wanted to deal with problems. And

And I think that you showed that in your first congressional race against Pete Sessions. And folks, Pete Sessions, in a lot of ways, was a harder target than Ted Cruz in terms of the way the district was organized and in terms of the – you were a newbie. The D-trip wasn't all that fascinated by doing that race. You had to go out and hustle and do it. I mean you've got a model here, I think.

where you're much more in the center. You're much more of a practical candidate. You want to get stuff done. And I think that if folks focus on this race a little bit,

And you end up knocking off Ted Cruz. If Colin, you and your team and the volunteers that you've motivated out there in the state, including my good friend Claire Dewar, who's a fellow board member at Lincoln, who loves you like nobody's business. If you get out there and do the work, everybody, I'm just talking to Colin here, talking to the folks in Texas who are helping on this, taking down Ted Cruz is

would reshape national politics in this country. And putting someone like Colin in the Senate would reshape how the Senate operates, because there are Republicans in the Senate even now, and John Cornyn and Lisa Murkowski and others, who are desperately looking for partners in governance. Right? I mean, I'm sure you hear that a lot, even from quiet Republicans who understand what the difference would be.

Yeah. Well, it's funny actually how many of, uh, uh, Republicans have come up to me on the floor and the house and said, you know, I hope you beat him. Um, cause like, cause he does make it harder for ordinary Republicans. Uh,

to do their job. Right. He attacks them when they're trying to pass a common sense bill. And he goes on, you know, conservative media and lies about the bill. They start getting calls in their office about it and saying, why are you supporting this? And then they get all, you know, gun shy. And listen, I think they should just go ahead and do it anyway. But, you know, there there are certainly some folks out there who I think are looking for partners. And right here, I want to say this on the on the Democratic side, you know,

We have to have, you know, some pragmatic Democrats from the South and from places like this, you know, who can kind of speak for our energy economy and say, hey, listen, you know, this is an incredibly important part of not only the Texas economy, but of our national security. Right. If you want to support Ukraine, you got to support LNG, you know, and kind of go from there and say, listen, let's keep this within the 40 yard line, so to speak. Right. Right.

And so I think I can help play that role. And, you know, last thing I'll say is, I mean, as you know, Rick, January 6th was a lot of different things, but it wasn't just the guy at the top. It was also Ted Cruz, who was the principal effort in the Senate to overturn that election. And to me, he disqualified himself from holding public office anymore. The Houston Chronicle called on him to resign. He didn't do it. So now we've got to make sure that he loses here.

You know, I think that's a terrific point that that that in the history of one six, there was a cadre of people in the Senate. But as you point out by Ted Cruz, but also including Josh Hawley and Rick Scott and Cindy Hyde Smith, a bunch of other people in the Senate who weren't afraid when the mob hit, they were wondering how it was going to go down.

They were not they were they were there waiting like this could work out in our favor. They weren't offended by it. They weren't afraid of it. They weren't disgusted by it. And I think that is one of the things that has truly disqualified him in a broad catalog of things. But, you know, I think you're right. That's that's a point I would definitely make. And look, Ted Cruz will never answer an honest question in his life. But Donald Trump did not win the election. And I know that he told someone a few months ago that he admitted it in private to someone.

And you should hold his feet to the fire on that one because he is a guy who – Ted's a bad liar. That's one of the things about Ted Cruz. He's not slick. Some people, when they lie, they're slick. You're like, ugh, can't quite put a handle on it.

But he's a terrible liar. And I think in a debate, you know, he's a guy who will rely on his – Ted's a smart guy, but he's narrow smart. He's not widely smart. But listen, I wish you all the best. I think you are running a terrific campaign. Keep that Houston vibe going, man. Get that turnout revved up. Stay out on the road in the state. Burn through a couple sets of tires on the rental cars.

and run through the tape, okay? Will do. Yeah, thank you, Rick. I appreciate y'all. And thanks for having me on. Thanks for coming on, Colin. The Lincoln Project Podcast is a Lincoln Project production. Executive produced by Whitney Hayes, Finn Howe, and Joseph Warner-Chamberlain. Produced and edited by Whitney Hayes and Jeff Taylor. And good luck.