TEXAS  — U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, has his sights set on defeating Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in 2024, and while it’s an uphill battle, his campaign has raised a lot of cash.

What You Need To Know

  • U.S. Rep. Colin Allred's 2024 Senate campaign announced it has raised nearly $6.2 million in its first two months

  • Allred is trying to unseat Republican Sen. Ted Cruz 

  • The campaign earlier announced it had raised $2 million in its first 36 hours 

  • A May poll by the University of Texas at Tyler showed Cruz with a 5-point lead over Allred

The campaign on Wednesday reported it has raised nearly $6.2 million in its first two months. With the transfer of $2.4 million from Allred’s House campaign account, the campaign will report bringing in more than $8.6 million on its Second Quarter FEC report.

“Since day one this campaign has been about bringing people together to beat Ted Cruz and give this state the leadership it deserves,” Colin Allred for Senate Campaign Manager Paige Hutchinson said in a news release. “We are amazed at the outpouring of support, and more confident than ever that we will have the resources to win next November and send Ted Cruz packing.”

Allred’s team in early May reported raising $2 million in the first 36 hours of the campaign. It’s currently reporting it has received more than 97,000 donations from unique donors.

A late May poll by the University of Texas at Tyler showed Cruz with a 5-point advantage over Allred.

Forty-two percent of respondents said they would vote for Cruz and 37% supported Allred. Seven percent indicated “someone else” and 14% responded “don’t know.”

Twenty percent of respondents said they have a very favorable impression of Cruz, 21% said somewhat favorable, 6% indicated neither, 13% said somewhat unfavorable, 36% indicated very unfavorable and 4% said they don’t know enough. Cruz’s favorability was higher among Republicans. Cruz did better among white respondents than Black respondents.

Eight percent of respondents have a very favorable impression of Allred, 13% said somewhat favorable, 12% indicated neither, 10% said somewhat unfavorable, 9% marked very unfavorable and 48% said they don’t know enough about him.

Allred announced his candidacy on May 3. Besides being a frequent critic of Cruz, Allred, 40, is a former NFL linebacker who played for the Tennessee Titans and was a football standout at Baylor University. He later got a law degree from the University of California, Berkeley, before taking positions in the administration of former President Barack Obama.

Allred’s announcement marked the first significant challenge to Cruz, who defeated former Democratic representative Beto O’Rourke in 2018 in a tight race.