Texas Democrat Roland Gutierrez announces challenge to Cruz

Texas state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D) on Monday launched a 2024 campaign for the U.S. Senate seat held by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Gutierrez represents a district in South Texas that includes Uvalde, where a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School and killed 19 students and two teachers last year.

Since then, Gutierrez has been an outspoken advocate of stricter gun laws and has called for the termination of the officers who waited more than an hour to respond to the school shooting. In his new campaign video, he calls for reforms to help protect children in school, accusing Republicans of not being open to discussing initiatives to prevent another tragedy.

“But we saw firsthand how our leaders only cared about maintaining power,” he said in his video. “I’m a proud gun owner and believer in the Second Amendment, but after 19 children and two teachers died, the Republicans wouldn’t even allow us an opportunity to talk about ways to protect our kids.”

“It’s why we have to do something now,” he continued. “But what happened in Uvalde wasn’t just about guns, it was about neglect. The neglect of rural Texas. The neglect of the systems in this state that are supposed to keep us safe.”

He is the second Democrat to enter the Senate race against Cruz, setting up a competitive Democratic primary between Gutierrez and Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas). Allred launched his campaign in May and raised $6.2 million in the first two months since his launch.

In his campaign video, Gutierrez also took aim at Cruz over the Republican’s 2021 trip to Cancun during a winter storm in Texas that left millions without power.

“I’m running against Ted Cruz because everything that we’ve seen in this state has been nothing but taking care of rich people, while the poor people — the working class — get screwed over,” Gutierrez said.

“We’ve seen bribery and corruption that is appalling. Political stunts that are tragic. And when our Senator goes to Cancun while Texans are fighting for their lives in a winter storm, that’s just indefensible,” he added.

Cruz spokesperson Nick Maddux said in a statement that Texans “will now get to watch Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez slug it out for who can be the most radical leftist in the state.”

“Meanwhile, Sen. Cruz will continue passionately defending Texas and delivering real results for 30 million Texans,” Maddux added.

Updated at 10:36 a.m.