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Five years ago, a punk rock, skateboarding Democratic phenom named Beto ORourke seemed like he might unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. As liberals around the country went starry-eyed over his viral speeches, ORourke raised more than $80 million and lost by less than 3%. The former congressman went on to a failed presidential bid, and then lost a gubernatorial race last year by more than ten points.

Now, Cruz is back up for reelection and national Democrats must decide if they can continue to justify pouring their resources into a state thats repeatedly let them down. No Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994, when Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock was reelected. And Texas Republicans won resoundingly in last years midterms. With Democrats nervous about holding on to their slim Senate majority in 2024, national Democratic groups may be slow to invest in the Lone Star State. But a number of factors, including Cruzs polarizing reputation, means the race could once again draw big money.

Youre calling at a good time, because I think a lot of us are changing our attitude right now, says Alex Morgan, the president of Progressive Turnout Project, which poured more than half a million dollars into a get-out-the-vote mail program for ORourke in 2018. With Colin Allred jumping in the race, I think Texas becomes our best pick-up opportunity in the U.S. Senate this year.

Allred, a former NFL linebacker who made it to Congress after defeating a longtime Republican incumbent in a swing district in 2018, launched his campaign against Cruz on Wednesday. His introductory video, which highlighted his biography and bipartisan wins, recounted his experience inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and trashed Cruz as all hat, no cattle, quickly garnered millions of views on social media. Allred announced Thursday evening that his Senate campaign had raised more than $2 million in its first 36 hours.

Although other Democrats are expected to vie for the chance to be the nominee, Cruz was quick to sic his supporters on Allred as an immediate threat.

We cant let a radical leftist like Colin Allred flip our state blue in 2024, Cruz tweeted on Wednesday, with a link to a fundraising page.

Democrats face a tough Senate map this cycle, with at least seven Democratic-held seats at risk in battleground states. Losing just one could give Republicans control of the chamber. That means resources will already be spread thin. Yet party leaders are on the lookout for possible pickups, and the two clearest opportunities are Florida, which has only seemed to get redder over the past few years, and Texas.

In an interview with CQ Roll Call published Thursday morning, Senator Tina Smith of Minnesota, the vice chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, named Texas when asked about a place on the 2024 Senate map where Democrats could go on the offensive, saying the state was like Georgia was a few years ago.

Democrats will look for every opportunity to put Republicans on defense, including in states like Texas, a DSCC aide tells TIME.

Despite well over a decade of unfulfilled hopes among Democrats that Texas might finally turn blue, no one who spoke to TIME for this story was ready to write the state off as a lost cause. Harvey Kronberg, the publisher of Quorum Report, an insider newsletter on Texas politics, thinks that Democrats long history of losses could end with a star candidate who knows how to land jabs at an opponent and use radio and TV to their advantageareas where he thinks ORourke fell short.

I actually think we will see us become authentically purple in the next decade, Kronberg tells TIME, adding, One statewide win will turn us purple.

But polling suggests the challenges for Texas Democrats remain as steep as ever. A survey of Texas voters from the University of Texas at Austin released Wednesday found that 45% approve of Cruz and 41% disapprove. Among Republicans, approval jumped to 78%.

He just has locked down Republicans in the state, said Daron Shaw, a professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, in a podcast published this week with the poll. And it is awfully tough as a Democrat to beat somebody who generates so much enthusiasm and loyalty among the Republican base.

For now, many national Democrats and outside groups are hanging back to see how the race shakes out before they decide how much they want to put into Texas. That could be another point in Allreds favor, given his reputation as a strong fundraiser.

On paper, he looks like a man that can raise tens of millions of dollars, Kronberg says.

Allred hasnt cleared the primary field yet; State Senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, is widely expected to enter the race after the Texas legislative session ends this month. Texas Democrats say good things about both men and foresee their differing strengths in reaching Black and Latino Texans, respectively.

With their partys nominee still undecided, Democrats are for now uniting in their antipathy toward Cruz, who is among their biggest bogeymen; in 2021 he earned dozens of bruising headlines for traveling to Cancn while his constituents suffered the effects of a deadly winter storm. Allreds launch video slammed Cruz for that trip, and accused Cruz of hiding in a closet during the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

Theyre also united around the idea that the Lone Star State remains a battleground. One Texas Democratic consultant says that the consensus among clients from a variety of sectors is that Texas will continue to see more and more political investment. Rahna Epting, the executive director of MoveOn, whose members backed ORourke decisively ahead of 2018, says fighting in Texas again this cycle remains a real possibility.

Knowing that the Senate map is going to be challenging in 2024, if the Texas Senate race opens up a possibility for us to gain another Democratic seat, that is something definitely worth looking at, she says.

Another national Democratic strategist who spoke to TIME is optimistic about Texas, and particularly the prospect of Allred posing a real challenge in 2024.

Is Colin Allred the one to flip it? I think thats still an open question, the strategist tells TIME. But its one that I think is worth asking.

Abhi Rahman, who served as senior communications adviser and spokesperson on ORourkes 2022 gubernatorial campaign, argues that a general lack of investment in the state hurt efforts to turn Texas blue last year. But he, too, thinks an Allred-Cruz match-up could change the game.

Republicans were effective in the way that they branded Beto right at the beginning of the race, Rahman says. Republicans win when theyre able to villainize the Democrat, which is something that Ted Cruz is not going to be able to do, because first of all, hes Ted Cruz, hes despised by everybody. And secondly, Colin Allred is a moderate Democrat whos really spent his time in Congress working on VA hospitals, doing bipartisan stuff.

Adds Rahman: Its a completely different dynamic in this race.

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Mini Racker at mini.racker@time.com.

Here is the original post:
Why Democrats May Target Ted Cruz in Deep-Red Texas in 2024 - TIME

The Texas Senate race is already shaping up to be a barn burner Democratic Rep. Colin Allreds initial fundraising haul is an early sign that the Lone Star State will once again host an expensive Senate race.

Allredraised more than $2 millionin the first 36 hours of his campaign, NBC News Daniel Arkin reports. Thats more than GOP Sen. Ted Cruz raised during the first three months of the year, when he hauled in $1.3 million. Cruz did end the first fundraising quarter on March 31 with $3.3 million in his campaign account. Allreds House campaign had $2.2 million, which could be transferred to his Senate run.

Texas is one of Senate Democrats few pickup opportunities next year, and a tough one at that. But a well-funded Democratic challenger could force Republicans to spend money in the Lone Star state, diverting money away from Republican efforts to flip blue Senate seats.

The race is already getting heated, with Allred criticizing Cruz for spending time hosting a podcast, which releases three episodes per week. Cruzdefended his podcasting, telling Insider that it is popular because people found it valuable to understand what was happening in the Senate.

That is not somehow peripheral to doing the job, Cruz said. It is integral to doing the job.

In other campaign news

Party time: Former President Donald Trump has onlysparingly mentioned the word Republicanas in speeches, interviews, and videos, NBC News Vaughn Hillyard and Jonathan Allen report.

Standing by their man:Florida GOP Gov. RonDeSantis big donors are largely standing by him, USA Today reports, although they acknowledged that he has faced setbacks and that beating Trump would be difficult. DeSantis (who is not officially in the race yet) alsopicked up an endorsementfrom New Hampshire House Majority Leader Jason Osborne (R-Auburn), per the New Hampshire Journal.

Preaching to the choir:The Washington Post delves into the so-called J6 Prison Choir, who Trump featured at his first rally,identifying five of the 15 men captured on videosinging the Star Spangled Banner in prison. Four of them were charged with assaulting police, using weapons such as a crowbar, sticks and chemical spray, including against Officer Brian D. Sicknick, who died the next day, the Post reports.

Trump trial:Both sides of the civil trial against Trump, where he faces allegations of rape and defamation from write E. Jean Carroll,rested their cases on Thursday, with closing arguments expected on Monday if Trump decides not to testify.

Outside help:President Joe Biden is getting some outside help in his push to raise the debt ceiling, withoutside groups pressuring vulnerable Republicanson the issue, NBC News Alex Seitz-Wald reports.

Peach state primary:Democrats effort to make Georgia an early primary state was stymied Thursday when GOP Secretary of State BradRaffensperger announced he was scheduling the presidential primary for March 12, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Raskin askin (about a Senate bid):TIME Magazine reports that Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, the former lead impeachment manager in Trumps second impeachment trial, isconsidering a Senate bidand will be taking the month of May to decide on a run.

The tax man cometh: Spectrum NewsTaylor Popielarzspoke with Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown about reporting from NBC News Henry Gomez cataloging thesenators late tax paymentsand questionable claiming of a tax credit.

Craft and Cruz:Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz backed Kentucky Republican Kelly Craft, the former ambassador to the United Nations, in the states GOP gubernatorial primary andwill campaign with her next week.

The Santos latest: Semafor reports that the Office of Congressional Ethics recommended that the House Ethics Committeedismiss a sexual harassment claimagainst New York GOP Rep. George Santos because there is not substantial reason to believe that Rep. Santos sexually harassed or discriminated against the complainant.

Bridget Bowman is a deputy editor for NBC's Political Unit.

Ben Kamisar is a deputy political editor in NBC's Political Unit.

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Eyes on 2024: Democrats are all in for Allred - NBC News

The thing about being a Democrat is that its pretty easy. Any US citizen can do it; you just check a box on a voter registration form. Joe Manchin is a Democrat. So, until recently, was Kyrsten Sinema. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who on economic issues is closer to a lot of Republicans than to progressives, is a Democrat.

In San Francisco, everyone in elected office is a Democrat, and if there are any Republicans on city commissions, I dont know them.

So the word Democrat doesnt have much meaning in local politics. Some folks who are Democrats would like to change that; some of us think that the Democratic Party should work to fight economic inequality by taxing the rich, that homelessness is not a criminal-justice issue, that more cops dont make the city safer, that the private market wont solve the housing crisis.

But people who say the San Francisco Democratic Party should stand for progressive San Francisco values are not, despite what Heather Knight at the Chronicle says, embrace [ing] zero-sum politics rather than a shared opportunity to fix the citys biggest problems.

Knight seems oblivious to the reality of local politics. She writes:

San Francisco politics have long been toxic, but theblue-vs.-blueinfighting has grown particularly nasty in recent years.

Yesand the person most directly engaged in petty, vindictive zero-sum politicsthat is, my way or the highwayis Mayor London Breed. Breed routinely does things like kill an affordable housing project because it would help a supervisor she dislikes, and refuse to spend housing money because it wasnt her idea.

I am not the only one who sees this; ask even the more conservative folks at City Hall, and off the record they will tell you how frustrating it is that the mayor wont work on shared opportunities to fix the citys biggest problems.

Knight never says anything about that.

No: Its always the left that is causing all the problems.

Knight is mad that the DCCC didnt charter a Westside club. It will eventually wind up chartering this group, which is what it is; there are other chartered clubs that help very conservative candidates. Maybe the new club will turn out to be a great progressive force for change.

But lets not be naive here. From Knight:

The club wants to improve the citys public schools, make its streets cleaner and safer, get more housing built and strengthen public transit a platform most Democrats across the political spectrum say they support.

Yes: Everyone in San Francisco, including Republicans, would say they support those things.

But thats not the point. The point is, do we improve the public schools by, for example, using demonstrably racist policies for admission at Lowell? Do we improve the schools by letting schools in rich areas raise money they dont share with schools in poor areas?

Do we make the streets cleaner and safer by criminalizing homeless people? Do we get more housing built by allowing private developers to demolish existing housing and build very expensive small condos and group housing that wont work for most families? Do we think trickle-down economics works, despite more than four decades of solid evidence that it doesnt?

Do we strengthen public transit by cutting lines, or by raising taxes to replace fair-box revenue?

These are real issues, not platitudes. If they matter to Democrats, its fair to ask the nascent Westside Family Democratic Clubor any other applicantwhere the members stand on them At least, it is if the San Francisco Democratic Party means something different than the national party of Manchin and Feinstein.

Maybe it doesnt.

As former state Assemblymember Tom Ammiano put it to the LA Times: Why does New York get AOC, when we get Scott Wiener?

Whatever. I dont care that much about which Democratic club gets a charter; the corruption of local politics by tech and real-estate money goes so, so far beyond that.

But I wish Knight would for once at least grasp what this blue-blue divide is all about: That lives are at stake, that the policies of the neoliberal wing of the party have wrecked the economy and the city, , and that its not crazy for people who want things to work better to challenge those policies.

Oh and its the mayor, not the progressives, who is the real obstacle here.

Ack.

So on to this week.

The Castro Theater landmarking is, it appears, finally headed to an actual vote. Delayed in the name of maybe parties getting together to find a solution, which as far as I can tell has not happened, the question of landmarking the interior of the theater, including the existing seating, will come back to the Land Use and Transportation Committee Monday/8.

The Castro Theater Conservancy has offered to take over the lease or buy the theater. Another Planet Entertainment, which has the master lease, and the Nasser Family, which owns the property, have rejected that offer.

That could change if the seats are landmarked, because at that point APEs plans to run the place as both a theater and a nightclub become pretty much impossible.

Right now, it appears that both sides are gearing up for a battle at the full board, where it takes six votes to grant landmark status. The committee will likely send this on to the board, with an amendment that would designate the existing seating and raked floor as protected.

Then a few weeks from now, each side will try to count to six.

Sups. Dean Preston and Connie Chan want to ask the Mayors Office of Housing and Community Development how its been spending $672 million a yearand how it plans to implement the recommendations of the Housing Stability Fund Oversight Board.

The presentation that MOHCD has prepared for the board is, to say the least, a bit disappointing: its five-year plan calls for reducing the number of people experiencing homelessness by all of 15 percent. A lot of money is going into shelters, following an approach advocated by the mayor and Sup. Rafael Mandelman, which is in essence getting people off the streets and out of sight.

It calls for 3,250 units of permanent affordable housing, which is about 7 percent of what the city has promised the state it will create over the next eight years.

That hearing starts at 1:30pm.

The full board will hold a Committee of the Whole hearing on the nightmare that is Laguna Honda Hospital, where the feds want to, at the very least, cut 120 beds from the public nursing home. At worst, the Biden Administration could order the eviction of 500 people, most of whom will probably die.

There is nowhere for them to go. Very few critical nursing beds exist in California, and even fewer that take Medicare. Th data is pretty clear: Moving these folks is a death sentence.

The Gray Panthers have a good summary here. The item is slated for 3pm.

The full board will also hear a resolution by Sup. Aaron Peskin urging District Attorney Brooke Jenkins to make public the videos that she cited in determining not to charge a security guard with homicide in the shooting of Banko Brown.

The evidence that we have, and its limited, makes clear that Brown was unarmed at the time he was killed.

That resolution could pass unanimously. Even state Sen. Scott Wiener, who is usually on the side of Jenkins and Breed, just released a statement calling for the release of the video.

It puts Jenkins under a lot of pressureI would suspect because the video shows that the guard had no reason to believe his life was in danger, and that her decision not to file charges was entirely political.

More:
Who are the 'toxic' local Democrats, really? - 48 hills - 48 Hills

TEXAS, USA While lawmakers in Austin continue to spar over legislation that would ban transgender children from getting any type of medical assistance to transition, one of the Democrats working hard to delay the Republican-backed legislation joined Inside Texas Politics to explain why.

The really frustrating part is that the proponents of this legislation say, 'Oh, were protecting children.' But the problem is the children themselves, their family members, their doctors have come and said, 'We dont want your protection, we dont need your protection and your protection that youre offering actually hurts us,' said Rep. Gene Wu.

Under the bill, children already using medical assistance such as puberty blockers would have to be weaned off.

Wu says Democrats are working hard to grandfather in all of those kids so they wouldnt have to stop treatment.

But the Houston Democrat doesnt think any of those amendments will pass.

Democrats have managed to the delay the bill at least two times, though, on a technicality.

And during earlier debate in the House, Speaker Dade Phelan had the House gallery cleared after opponents of the bill continued to interrupt the debate. State police physically removed some people from the Capitol.

Republicans have argued the legislation protects Texas children and their families. It is a legislative priority for the party, so it is still expected to pass.

Wu says if the GOP is so interested in keeping kids safe, it would pass gun safety legislation, such as raising the minimum age to buy a firearm.

The opposition is not willing to even pass a single gun-related bill that would actually make kids safer, not even give any consideration, said Wu. But theyre using this, theyre using this saying Oh, were going to protect kids.'

Original post:
State Representative says Democrats will continue to try to delay controversial transgender bill - WFAA.com

WASHINGTON Republican attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris are taking hold, and the White House is running out of time to reframe the narrative, Democrats say.

At a meeting two days after President Joe Biden announced his 2024 reelection bid, a group of Democratic strategists told the White House as much during a briefing for television pundits on the pairs agenda.

For more than two years, Republicans had been attempting to paint Harris as incompetent. And yet, the strategists found, the White House was still developing its strategy for how to combat the ruthless assault against the first Black and Asian American woman to hold the vice presidency.

A discussion ensued about ways to lift up Harris and improve her image, four participants in the meeting said. Democrats in the room argued that Harris would benefit from more public appearances in environments where she can be herself and in front of voting groups with whom she is already popular.

President Joe Biden carries away take-out food from Taqueria Habaneros with Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, DC, on May 5, 2023.

Biden has since made a visible show of support for Harris, defending her in an interview and playing up an unannounced visit the pair made to a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo.

But some Harris allies fear its too late. The vice presidents poll numbers have been below 50 percent since the duos first year in office, and several Democrats, who requested anonymity to speak candidly, expressed concern that they may be beyond repair.

Views about Harris, a former state attorney general who briefly ran for president and served a partial term in the U.S. Senate, may be hardening, and some Democrats say Bidens team did not take the issue seriously fast enough.

In a CBS News poll taken late last month, Harris had a 43% approval rating and a 57% disapproval rating. Although she has wide Democratic support, Harris is viewed favorably by just 35% of swing voters.

Harris negatives rose early in the administration after she was tasked with leading an effort to stem the tide of illegal migration to the U.S. from Central American nations. The assignment led to a barrage of attacks from Republicans, who sought to make her the face of the border crisis.

Story continues

In the last year, Harris has found a niche in promoting abortion rights, railing against the Supreme Court decision that gave states the ability to ban the practice.

It has helped the vice president focus on a single issue that she talks about repeatedly, said Jamal Simmons, a former communications director to Harris who departed the White House in January. She continues to have 10 or 12 issues that she cares about and focuses on and pop up. This issue of reproductive freedom is one that is not going away.

The attacks on Harris are not a new phenomenon. But with the presidential campaign underway, Republicans focus on the vice president has intensified.

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley suggested last month that Biden, who is 80, would not live through the end of a second term.

Last week, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador wrote in a Fox News op-ed that Harris, 58, is one of the most incompetent elected officials in the country."

Rep. Jim Clyburn, a national co-chair of Bidens reelection campaign, said the White House should not stoop that low.

That kind of low life stuff, they ought not respond to, Clyburn, D-S.C., said in an interview.

Vice President Kamala Harris shops at Home Rule Records with owner Charvis Campbell in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2023.

He tied the attacks that are meant to discredit Harris to the period after the Civil War, known as the Reconstruction era, and said discrimination against Black office holders and anti-democratic events such as the Jan 6. insurrection will continue if they are left unchecked.

Patrick Gaspard, an Obama-era official who was executive director of the Democratic National Committee, said he believes Americans are not yet paying close attention to the 2024 race. There isn't anyone in that White House from the president on down who can be shook by this at all, said Gaspard, referring to the criticism of Harris.

The White House knows that attacking the vice president as a means of undercutting the ticket is part of an old political playbook, which Biden himself is familiar with having run for reelection alongside former President Barack Obama, he said. And most voters will be concerned about near-term challenges, including the economy and their personal rights, Gaspard added.

Staunch backers of Harris say that with the right approach, the vice president can still build on her support. In a Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll from mid-December nearly 11% of voters said they were undecided about Harris.

What will help her numbers go up is when they begin conducting a paid advertising campaign that extols the work shes been doing the last two years, Simmons, the former Harris aide, said.

Harris allies say that questions about who the vice president is and what she has accomplished stem from a lack of familiarity with her background and record that was exacerbated by the constraints on holding in-person events during the pandemic.

I just think that Vice President Harris hasn't gotten the credit she deserves, Biden said in an MSNBC interview that aired this past Friday. She is really very, very good. And with everything going on, she hasn't gotten the attention she deserves.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris smile during a meeting with his "Investing in America Cabinet," in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, May 5, 2023, in Washington. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appears on a screen as he attends the meeting virtually. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) ORG XMIT: DCEV420

The recent addition of Stephanie Young, a senior adviser whos focused on communications, was viewed by Democrats with close ties to the White House as a step toward bolstering Harris' image. She came to the vice presidents shop from When We All Vote, an organization founded by former first lady Michelle Obama.

Young delivered the section of the presentation that pertained to Harris during the meeting with Democratic pundits and strategists alongside Harris press secretary Kirsten Allen.

The meeting was an opportunity to share more about the Administrations work overall. It also served as an opportunity to share the Vice Presidents work and ensure the leading voices communicating with the American people were fully aware of what the Vice President is doing on the American peoples behalf. It was a two way conversation to increase understanding and connection, a White House official who declined to be named said in a statement to USA TODAY.

The official emphasized Harris work on abortion rights, gun violence prevention and infrastructure projects and said the vice president would be out and in the fight over those issues in the weeks and months ahead.

Democrats said they expect the White House to strategically deploy Harris to rally base voters, much as it did in the 2022 midterms putting her in front of audiences with whom she's popular. The vice president has relatively high approval ratings with Black voters, registered Democrats and voters under the age of 30, in particular.

Harris recent trip to Tennessee, where she spoke to students at a historically Black university and met with three state legislators who were ejected from office, was among the recent public appearances that White House allies praised.

Harris is representative to a diverse generation of younger voters of what is possible in America, said Cristina Tzintzn Ramirez, president of the progressive, youth advocacy group NextGen America.

And having the vice president out on the campaign trail making the case for another four years to Gen Z voters would be really smart on their part, she said. There is a lot that they can talk about about what they've done, and not just pointing to the other side and how bad the other side is.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Dems want to boost Harris' image. Some VP allies fear its too late.

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Democrats want to fix Kamala Harris' image problem. Some VP allies fear its too late. - Yahoo News