Texas
Colin Allred courts Black voters in the final days of his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz
:focal(0x0:3000x2000)/static.texastribune.org/media/files/c3c899d56d2b38485f209a1c34609338/Allred%20Warnock%20GOTV%20TSU%20DS%2001%20copy.jpg?ssl=1 "Colin Allred courts Black voters in the final days of his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz")
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In the final days of his uphill bid for the U.S. Senate, Dallas Congressman Colin Allred is working overtime to lock down the backbone of the Democratic party: Black voters.
In the past five days, Allred, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, has campaigned in Houston along with Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee; Beyoncé, the international pop star and Houston native; and Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator.
On Tuesday night, Allred finished a five-day swing through Houston with a rally at Texas Southern University, a historically Black college, where he was introduced by Warnock, who rose to prominence as the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s former congregation.
Allred portrayed Cruz as an absentee senator who fled the state for Cancun while millions of people suffered during a winter freeze in 2021. He criticized Cruz for trying to overturn the results of the presidential election in 2020 and for supporting policies that he said have led to the near-total abortion ban in Texas.
Allred’s rally also featured Samantha Casiano, a Texas woman who had to give birth to a baby her doctors said would not live longer than a day because of a rare and fatal condition that prevents a child’s brain and skull from forming properly. Her daughter only lived for nearly four hours after she was born.
“We’ve got a senator who’s too small for our state and we’ve got one week to do something about it,” Allred told the crowd of a few hundred as speakers encouraged attendees to participate in block walks and phone banks. “We gotta make sure that we get out the vote.”
First: Georgia’s senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, takes to the stage at Sawyer Auditorium on the campus of Texas Southern University to encourage people to get out and vote for Colin Allred. Last: Allred speaks on the steps of Houston’s City Hall at the 10,000 Black Men rally on Sunday, Oct. 27.
Credit:
Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune
Students from the Imani School in Houston recite the Pledge of Allegiance to kick off a get-out-the-vote rally in support of Colin Allred at the Texas Southern University campus on Tuesday, Oct. 29.
Credit:
Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune
Allred is the underdog in the race against Cruz, a two-term Republican senator, in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in 30 years. So his hopes of making the race competitive rely on running up the tally with the core of the Democratic base, a large chunk of which is Black voters.
Je’Von Tone, a 22 year-old student at the campus, said he had been waiting for Allred to visit the university since the start of the campaign. He was excited that Allred brought Warnock with him and was making an appeal to Black and young voters.
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“This race is going to be very, very close especially for people who are in my age group, because we tend to have the lowest turnout,” Tone said. “So he’s going to make every last push that he can to make any stops that he can go to: schools, church, homes, block-walking, phone-banking and any get-out-the-vote efforts he can do.”
During his time in Houston, Allred shared the stage with Harris and Beyoncé at a packed event with more than 20,000 people at Shell Energy Stadium on Friday; hosted a 10,000 Black Men of Greater Houston Rally on Saturday; and presided over roundtables with Black business leaders Tuesday.
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred speaks during a Kamala Harris campaign rally at Shell Energy Stadium in Houston on Friday, Oct. 25.
Credit:
Joseph Bui for The Texas Tribune
Those recent events have projected a sense of urgency for an Allred campaign that ran under the radar and tried to appeal to moderate Republican and independent voters for much of the race. Now, his campaign is running a full-court press to turn out the Democratic base.
Candice Matthews, the chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said Allred has been in touch with her group throughout the race and has solid name recognition among Black voters. But the appearance at Texas Southern was a strategically smart move, she said.
“This is an excellent step, coming to an HBCU, showing the students that they matter,” she said.
She’Deja Martin, a 20-year-old student at the rally, said she wanted to learn more about Allred. She planned to vote for him because she disliked Cruz but said she had just learned about the Democratic candidate in the last week. She thought Allred’s stop at the school would help him among her fellow students.
“[But] it may have helped to come a little sooner because a lot of people have already voted,” she said.
In recent days, Allred has started more openly making appeals to Black voters. Last week, in a fundraising text message to supporters, he noted he would be the state’s first Black senator and said that “Black Americans have long faced far too many obstacles like discrimination and the racist voter suppression laws that Texas Republicans like Ted Cruz have championed.”
During the roundtable with Black business leaders, Allred was joined by former City Council Member Dwight Boykins and state Sen. Borris Miles of Houston, who represents a majority African American district. Miles offered his help in the final days of the election.
“We’re just here in the fight,” he said. “We’re trying to get you across the line.”
Boykins said Allred was visiting Houston at a crucial point. Most voters are only now deciding who they will vote for and their choice in the Senate race will likely follow their pick in the presidential election. Allred running TV ads and visiting major cities will help his name recognition when voters are making that choice.
“I think his name ID is strong enough in the commercials he’s running, believable enough, to get him where he’s trying to go,” Boykins said.
Also on Tuesday, Allred held a roundtable with women who have been impacted by the state’s near-total abortion ban and their physicians, where he promised to codify Roe v. Wade into law if he is elected.
Allred will head to the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday, where he will look to shore up support from another core base for his party: Hispanic voters.
Disclosure: Texas Southern University – Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Three hospitals in Texas received a combined $2.5 million in grant funding toward mobile stroke units aimed at increasing access to stroke care.
A stroke occurs when blood flow to an area of the brain is blocked or reduced.
According to the governor’s office, mobile stroke units were ambulances equipped with CT scanners to help identify strokes and begin treatment faster.
“Timely stroke care can make a life-changing difference for Texans and their families,” HHS Executive Commissioner Stephanie Muth said.
Dell Seton Medical Center at The University of Texas at Austin received $1.25 million to establish a new mobile stroke unit.
To expand their existing mobile stroke units, University Medical Center of El Paso was given $500,000, and Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston received $750,000.
“Texas will ensure Texans across our state can access swift and practical medical care,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott. “This $2.5 million investment into mobile stroke units will enable hospitals to better provide vital care without delay in the event of a stroke. I thank HHSC for their ongoing efforts to support our hospitals and the health of all Texans, no matter where they are.”
Another $2.5 million is expected to be distributed to other hospitals in 2027, according to the governor’s office.
Any hopes the Texas Longhorns had of contending in the College World Series took a massive blow on Saturday at Charles Schwab Field in a 7-1 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs as right-hander Joey Volchko delivered the best outing of his career, striking out a career-high 15 batters in a complete game for the first Bulldogs win in Omaha since 2008.
Volchko took control early by striking out the first three batters he faced and never faltered, pouring in strikes early in the count and missing bats with the glove-side run on his four-seam fastball and electric slider. Of the 114 pitches thrown by the Stanford transfer, 84 went for strikes as Texas only managed four hits, two by sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, who scored the only run for the Horns in the fifth inning. Volchko’s ability to fill up the strike zone resulted in Texas only drawing one walk.
The Horns went 1-for-9 (.111) with runners on and 1-for-5 (.200) with runners in scoring position as only one player in the starting lineup, junior first baseman Ashton Larson, avoided a strikeout. Larson went 0-for-3.
As Volchko worked ahead in count, Texas responded by trying to attack the first pitch, a strategy that worked as poorly as attempting to get deep in at bats. After junior right fielder Aiden Robbins worked a full count against Volchko to start the game before striking out, the Horns didn’t get to a three-ball count again until pinch-hitter Josh Livingston in the eighth inning.
The Bulldogs took advantage of early mistakes by the Longhorns as sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis struggled with his command in the first inning, walking the first batter he faced before giving up a line-drive home run off the foul pole in left field by center fielder Rylan Lujo.
Even as Volantis became more effective, it backfired when junior catcher Carson Tinney airmailed a soft throw on a swinging strikeout that allowed Georgia to put a runner on first with one out after Lujo’s homer. A soft single through the right side of the Texas infield increased the pressure on Volantis, who was able to record the second out before hitting a batter and giving up two unearned runs when Tinney made another mistake on a swinging strikeout, missing his throw to first instead of trying to get the runner out at home.
So the Bulldogs took command of the game after the first inning with the benefit of only one hit as Tinney committed his third and fourth errors of the season in an uncharacteristically shaky performance.
Volantis wasn’t always able to work in the zone over the ensuing innings, hitting two more batters, even though he didn’t allow another hit until the seventh when he gave up an RBI double and a two-run single when Georgia scored three unearned runs thanks to an error by junior third baseman Casey Borba.
If the game wasn’t already out of reach for Texas before the seventh, it certainly was afterwards as the top four batters in the lineup combined to go 0-for-15 with 11 strikeouts, including four by redshirt senior second baseman Temo Becerra.
The Horns also saw junior designated hitter Ethan Mendoza depart in the eighth inning with an injury after hitting a single up the middle.
With the season on the line, Texas faces Alabama on Monday at 1 p.m. Central in an elimination game. The Tide lost to the Sooners 9-0 in the early game on Saturday.
Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard James Harden was arrested in Harris County, Texas, early Saturday morning and charged with misdemeanor unlawful carrying of weapons, according to court documents.
A charging document filed in Texas says Harden was taken into custody at approximately 3:40 a.m. after an officer observed a handgun in plain view inside his vehicle. Harden had “unlawfully, intentionally and knowingly” carried the weapon, the document alleges.
The circumstances surrounding the arrest were not immediately clear.
Harden was released from custody following his arrest. As conditions of his bond, he has been ordered not to possess any weapons or consume alcohol or drugs and must submit to random urine tests, according to court documents.
Harden joined the Cleveland Cavaliers this year after stints with the Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers, Brooklyn Nets and the Houston Rockets. He is regarded as one of the best shooting guards in NBA history.
In a statement to NBC News, a spokesperson for the Cleveland Cavaliers said the team is aware of Harden’s arrest and they are in the process of gathering more information.
“We are in contact with James and his representation and will continue to monitor developments as they become available,” said team spokesperson BJ Evans.
Harden’s agent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Harden is scheduled to appear in court on June 22.
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