by AUSTIN, Texas — Democratic Texas State Senator Roland Gutierrez, who has pushed for police accountability and stronger gun laws after Uvalde school shootingannounced Monday that he will run for the United States Senate in 2024.
He becomes the second Texas Democrat to embark on what will be an unlikely attempt to deny Republican Senator Ted Cruz a third term representing the largest red state in the nation.
In May, Colin Allred Deputy he became the first to enter the race. He says his campaign has since raised more than $6 million. He sets up a rare competitive Democratic primary for a major race in Texas, where decades of Republican dominance have often discouraged big-name Democrats from running statewide.
Gutierrez was little known beyond his South Texas district, which includes Uvalde, before a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. He spent the next year making passionate pleas for tougher gun laws and shots on the police waiting more than an hour confront the gunman.
No Democrat has won state office in Texas in nearly 30 years. Former Congressman Beto O’Rourke nearly beat Cruz in 2018, in what was a strong year for Democrats nationally but was solidly defeated by double digits last year in a challenge against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Both Gutierrez and Allred are likely to call attention to the Cruz vote reject certification of President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump in 2020. Allred also accused Cruz of leaving Texas going on vacation with your family during a deadly winter storm a few weeks later.
