AUSTIN (Nexstar) – Early voting starts Tuesday for the Texas primary. One of the closest watched races on the ballot is the Democratic campaign for U.S. Senate.
With a third of democratic voters still undecided, candidates racing to take on Senator Ted Cruz are making a renewed push to rally support. Congressman Colin Allred and State Senator Roland Gutierrez are the frontrunners in the upcoming democratic primary.
State of Texas host Josh Hinkle spoke with both Allred and Gutierrez to discuss key issues affecting this year’s elections.
Immigration is one of the top issues for Texas voters, and both Allred and Gutierrez have called for “comprehensive immigration reform.” We asked each candidate what that would entail.
“I think it has to be bipartisan,” Allred said. He noted that he’s working with Texas Congresswoman Veronica Escobar on bipartisan immigration legislation called the Dignity Act.
“Number one, we have to secure the border. That’s something that every country has to do…. But we also need to better match our immigration system to meet the needs of our economy. And that’s something I hear from employers all the time. And we want to be a country that can still attract and retain the top talent from around the world. With our broken system right now it’s making it harder for us to do that.”
“And then of course, need to have a pathway out of the shadows for folks who have been here who are undocumented, to find a way forward for them, and particularly to protect our Dreamers. To me, those are the kind of three pillars of what we know a bipartisan immigration reform is going to look like we haven’t done comprehensive reform since the Reagan era. It’s time for us to get that done now,” Allred added.
Full interview with Colin Allred
Gutierrez represents a State Senate district that includes close to 400 miles of the border, including Eagle Pass. His background as an immigration lawyer helped inform the five point immigration plan that he touts in his campaign.
“We’ve got to fix our broken H-2A and H-2B visa system. Incorporate a program like mine, a country of origin program that says that you apply for your job and it’s all about order and you got out wherever you go to the U.S. Consulate you go to a Department of Labor kiosk you get background checked, and in 90 days your new employer brings you to the United States as is current law under H-2A’s and H-2B’s,” Gutierrez explained.
“These asylum seekers are not asylum seekers. They’re job seekers. And every economist will tell you we need 30 million jobs to fill for jobs that Americans don’t want to do. We are an aging country. We need to look at this in a real way,” Gutierrez added.
Gutierrez also calls in his plan for spending money on the DEA to go after cartels in Mexico. “We did this in the 80s in Colombia, and we were successful at taking down the most dangerous cartels in the world. We can do that again, in a real way,” he said.
Gutierrez criticized Allred for being one of 14 House Democrats who joined Republicans to support a resolution condemning President Biden’s handling of the border. The resolution denounced the “administration’s open-borders policies.”
“We shouldn’t be signing resolutions like my opponent has done with crackpot Republicans,” said Gutierrez, adding that he believes it’s wrong to call Biden an open-borders president. “That doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t do anything, doesn’t fix anything, doesn’t acknowledge anything. That entire resolution was chock full of lies.”
Full interview with Roland Gutierrez
Allred defended his vote to support the Republican-led resolution.
“I think that in that vote, I was saying that I can’t stand with the status quo, that I don’t think it’s acceptable. And when we have a record number of crossings as we did last December, we know that something has to change. And I think that for us, as Texans, we have to acknowledge that there is a crisis. And now we have to respond to it,” Allred said.
He then turned his focus to the Republican on the ballot in November, Sen. Ted Cruz.
“He wants to talk about the problem at the border, but he doesn’t want to actually solve it. When he had a chance recently here in the United States Senate to have a bipartisan deal to try and address what was happening at the border. He didn’t want to vote for it, not because of the policy, but because he wants to have the political issue to run on November,” Allred said of Cruz.
“I’ll never put politics over what’s best for our state when I’m in the Senate,” Allred added.
Gun violence brings candidates to call for solutions
Our conversations with the candidates came during a week when different incidents of gun violence made headlines around the nation. The stories included gunfire inside a Houston megachurch, a mass shooting at Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory celebration, and students shot in an Atlanta high school parking lot.
Gun reform is a top priority for Gutierrez. “I’ve exhausted myself talking about guns,” he said.
Gutierrez, whose State Senate district includes Uvalde, was a leader in investigating the failures of the police response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting. He detailed the impact that being involved in the immediate response and viewing bodycam footage has had on both his personal and political life.
“I’ve seen all of those kids dead,” he said of seeing the footage. He said he had to file a lawsuit and sign a non-disclosure agreement to see the video. He said the footage shows officers on the scene afraid to engage the shooter armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.
“I will totally exhaust myself talking to people across this nation, about how cops are in fear of an AR-15, and why we need an assault weapons ban with certain exceptions.” he said.
In his campaign launch video, Gutierrez called himself a “proud gun owner and believer in the Second Amendment.” Since the Uvalde shooting, he’s been one of the most vocal members of the Texas legislature to call for gun legislation.
In recent years, gun violence has become the leading cause of death for children in the United States.
“We lead the world. We can change that,” Gutierrez said.
“This is something that I think every parent thinks about constantly, is how can we protect our kids,” said Allred, noting that he is a father of two young children. “I’m also a fourth generation Texan, I recognize and have grown up around folks who taught me about responsible gun ownership.”
Allred spoke of the need to reduce gun violence while respecting Second Amendment rights.
“To me that begins with universal background checks, doing something about high capacity magazines, raising the age to purchase a semi automatic rifle, and putting in place red flag laws for folks who have been found to be a danger to themselves, or others,” Allred said, calling those “common sense ideas.”
Views on Gaza and calls for a cease fire
In the war between Israel and Hamas, Gutierrez is a proponent for peace. He called for a ceasefire in December 2023, supporting a resolution passed by the Texas Democratic Party. Allred did not explicitly support the resolution.
“It’s a very short sighted view to say that Israel can go on and keep bombing,” said Gutierrez in the interview. “We must not give more aid to Israel, unless they show us a plan for immediate peace on how we’re going to stop this madness.”
“Killing 30,000 people doesn’t bring justice to those 1,200, and you should still be able to go in a police like manner and hunt those people down. But you shouldn’t bomb women and children with impunity like they have done over and over again for the last four months,” he continued.
Gutierrez also emphasized the fragility of the situation, calling the Middle East a “powder keg” and saying the conflict should be stopped to prevent a world war.
“I think our role as the United States is to help shape what comes next both in Gaza and for a potential Palestinian state. And that, to me has to be the end goal, that we have a peaceful and independent Palestinian state, next to a safe, secure, stable, democratic and Jewish state in Israel,” Allred said.
Allred has not joined other Democrats calling for a cease fire in Gaza.
“I think the President and the Secretary of State are working very hard right now to try and find a solution that leads to a ceasefire of some kind in exchange for the release of hostages and an agreement that leaves Hamas no longer in a position to be able to conduct an attack like we did on October 7,” Allred said. “But I am, like everyone, heartbroken about when you see civilian casualties in Gaza, just as I was heartbroken about what happened to the Israeli people on October 7, which was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.”
Cruz touts ‘common sense agenda’ on border, crime
As democrats in the race for senate accelerate their campaigns ahead of the March 5 primary, the incumbent has his eyes set on November.
“What we’re doing in Texas works,” said Cruz. “Every day, I’m fighting for more jobs for Texans, for higher wages, for better opportunity. I’m fighting for freedom to protect your constitutional rights.”
Cruz’s search for a third term runs alongside Texas’s border security battle with the federal government and a recent spur of mass shootings. KXAN’s Ryan Chandler sat down with Cruz to discuss these issues and the senator’s previous work in congress.
During the interview, Cruz labeled the current situation at the border “an utter catastrophe.”
He described what he saw during patrols with law enforcement, saying that people would purposefully turn themselves in to be released.
“This policy today is indefensible, the human suffering that is happening because of the chaos at our open border,” he said.
Cruz heavily criticized Biden’s current border policies, claiming the lack of security is deliberate in order to help democratic campaigns.
“We went from the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years to the worst in history,” said Cruz. “If he wanted to fix the problem tomorrow, what would he do? He’d build the wall. He’d end catch and release, and he’d reinstate Remain in Mexico. He won’t do it.”
Senate republicans rejected an immigration reform bill earlier this month. Cruz, who voted against the bill, claims it would have made the situation worse.
“What the Democrats wanted was two million illegal immigrants every year in perpetuity,” the senator explained. “That is lawlessness. That is literally putting into law the invasion that is happening in Texas. This was a terrible bill.”
In one of just a few mentions of potential opponent House Rep. Colin Allred, Cruz condemned the Democratic Party’s lack of visits to border communities.
“Why is Colin Allred not doing campaign events down at the border?” he asked. “You cannot see what is happening and defend it.”
Cruz ended the border discussion by saying the “open border” policies are helping drug cartels and human traffickers in Mexico and reiterating the increase of illegal immigration in the last few years.
Full interview with Senator Ted Cruz
The Lakewood Church shooting took place just miles from Cruz’s home. The attacker’s history of criminal charges and mental illness brings up conversation about prevention measures.
Texas democrats, particularly Cruz’s opponents, have been calling for red flag laws for years. Cruz says that’s an issue to leave up to the states. However, the senator did refer to several pieces of legislation he attempted to pass in congress pertaining to gun safety.
“When I introduced legislation to mandate the Department of Justice lock up felons and fugitives who try to illegally buy firearms. The Democrats blocked that funding,” said Cruz.
He then referred to the 2017 shooting in Sutherland Springs, where the gunman passed background checks because the Air Force failed to report felony charges. Cruz claims if his 2013 Grassley-Cruz legislation had passed, the Sutherland Springs shooting could have been prevented.
“Grassley-Cruz mandated that when a felon tries to illegally buy a gun, that the DOJ prosecute them and put them in jail,” Cruz said. “Sadly, the Biden administration has a pattern when felons try to illegally buy guns, they don’t prosecute them, they don’t put them in jail.”
The senator sees his stance on crime as a strength. “I have led the way consistently in the Senate. The way to stop violent crime is to go after the criminals,” he said.
When asked how he’s helped Texans during the last decade, Cruz pointed to the state’s growth.
“If you look at Texas for more than a decade, we’ve had over 1000 people a day moving to the state of Texas,” said Cruz. “Why? Because Texas is where the jobs are.”
The senator listed “jobs, freedom and security” as his top priorities, what he calls a “common sense agenda.” Cruz said that job growth relies on energy, and claimed democrats are hurting Texans by seeking to regulate energy production.