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A quiet captain
Colin Allred is no Beto O'Rourke.
Surely, you already figured that one out. But Benjamin Wermund takes a look at why and how his days on the football field at Baylor University tell you a lot about how he operates today.
He was never known for his bravado on the football field or hype in the locker room. At Baylor, where he played linebacker and was a team captain, Allred acted like a protective older brother, shutting down parties that went too late and urging teammates to stay focused when they were down.
"I played with guys who are supremely talented — way more talented than Colin ever was — who would freak out when things go bad," said CJ Wilson, who played with Allred in college before going on to the Dallas Cowboys and Carolina Panthers. "He would be looking at the scoreboard, he'd look at the ground, and he'd tell fellas around him: 'Let's just get one play.'"
Twenty years later, the former NFL player and civil rights attorney is taking the same steady approach in a hotly contested U.S. Senate race against Republican Ted Cruz. Allred's buttoned-up — some would say downright boring — campaign has left some Democrats frustrated, especially after O'Rourke fired up crowds across the state in 2018 and came closer than any Democrat has to unseating a Republican from statewide office in decades.
Allred, now in his third term in Congress, hasn't hit the ground in the same ceaseless way. And he won't be dropping F-bombs in impassioned rally speeches like O'Rourke. He's even a departure from MJ Hegar, a similarly moderate Democrat who nonetheless sought to brand herself a "badass" biker in her unsuccessful 2020 bid against U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
Instead, Allred says he's campaigning like he governs: he's trying to lower the temperature and reach across partisan divides. He credits the approach for helping him flip his longtime Republican congressional seat six years ago and is confident it will work again.
"When everything's going crazy, it's always the guys who keep their heads who are able to perform and do their jobs," he said.
Much more here from Wermund.
 | Jeremy Wallace, Texas politics reporter |
Who's up, who's down
Bexar County has narrowly approved a public financing deal for a new downtown ballpark, a key step in the San Antonio Missions' owners' plan to build a new stadium by Opening Day 2028. Commissioners Court voted 3-1-1 to approve a memorandum of understanding and the financing terms of a deal with Designated Bidders LLC, the group that purchased the minor league team in 2022.
Down: Donald Trump.
His donations from small-dollar donors are way off from 2020, explaining the financial problem he is facing against Kamala Harris. He had about $70 million less to campaign with just based on that decline. While some donors have said they just can't afford to keep giving, others said they got fed up with the barrage of texts, phone calls and emails begging for more cash.
What do you think? Hit reply and let me know.
What else is going on in Texas
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Pick of the day
Photo by: Images from the Jimmy Fullen campaign
High-profile figures like Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Houston attorney Tony Buzbee are rallying behind a Galveston sheriff's candidate who could lose his law enforcement officer's license within two months of election and be forced out of office. Armed with an outsized war chest and a promise to "fight back against the liberal agenda," Jimmy Fullen, a former Galveston County constable, won his March primary positioning him as the likely next sheriff in the Republican stronghold.
What else I'm reading
Immigrants who grew up in the United States after being brought here illegally as children were among close to 200 demonstrators who gathered Thursday outside a federal courthouse in New Orleans, where three appellate judges heard arguments over the Biden administration's policy shielding them from deportation. The Associated Press writes that what is at stake in the long legal battle playing out at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the future of about 535,000 people who have long-established lives in the U.S.
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