Driving around Tarrant County this election season, one thing is clear: It’s not 2018.
Back then, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke, the progressive El Paso congressman with a penchant for the F-bomb and standing on countertops, was attempting to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz.
One could sense the enthusiasm in the air — and see it displayed all over Dallas-Fort Worth in the deluge of yard signs that had engulfed entire neighborhoods in a wave of black and white.
O’Rourke’s duplicitous nickname was ubiquitous, and as a consequence, so was the conversation about his candidacy.
Everyone knew who he was — the great hope in the seemingly futile battle to turn Texas blue.
The national Democratic machine threw so much money at its latest darling, it felt like he couldn’t lose, even if the polls showed otherwise.
This time around, things are noticeably different.
There is a distinct lack of the frenzied mania for Cruz’s current Democratic challenger, Rep. Colin Allred, the Dallas-area congressman who may be better known for his career as a linebacker than his tenure as a politician.
When compared to O’Rourke, not to mention Cruz, Allred is far less visible — in person, in print, on TV and in the yards of your neighbors.
To wit, a friend recently admitted with sincerity that while he had heard Allred’s name, he did not know that he was a Democrat.
I couldn’t help but wonder if that may actually be by design.
According to a late summer report in Texas Monthly, Allred has eschewed the flashy campaign tactics preferred by his once transcendent predecessor in favor of a more demure election effort.
“He hosts few campaign rallies that would gin up enthusiasm among Texas’s liberals,” the magazine explained. “His website is heavy on biography and light on policy. ... He’s trying to run as a generic, largely uncontroversial Democratic candidate who, as one of his big appeals, isn’t named Ted Cruz.”
Political ambiguity. Light on details. Less visibility = more intrigue.
Sound familiar?
It’s not only the opposite of what O’Rourke did, it’s basically the strategy currently employed by Vice President Kamala Harris.
Just switch out “Trump” for “Cruz” and there you have it.
Triangulation has been a pillar of Allred’s campaign; he has especially touted his efforts at bipartisanship.
His website insists that “more than 70 percent of the bills he’s cosponsored [during his three terms in the U.S. Congress] have been bipartisan,” a believable claim when you realize that most proposed legislation is 1) uncontroversrial in nature (such as naming a highway in someone’s honor), and 2) never becomes law.
His voting record suggests that when the rubber meets the road, he is a little less bipartisan.
According to FiveThirtyEight, Allred voted with Biden 100 percent of the time.
That isn’t a deterrent to some supporters, particularly those bent on punishing Trump and his allies.
Allred has picked up the high-profile endorsements of former Rep. Liz Cheney as well as former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley — both Republicans, at least in their past lives, who now seem less motivated by Allred’s promotion than Cruz’s defeat.
When your endorsers spend as much energy assailing your opponent as they do singing your praises, it was never really about you.
But I digress.
Allred’s reasonableness and mild-tempered likability (especially when compared to the bombast of his opponent) seem to have, according to most polling, put him within striking distance of Cruz.
The real question is whether his light touch on the campaign trail and intentional ambiguity on the issues will generate enough enthusiasm at the polls to pull off the kind of upset that O’Rourke dreamed of six years ago.
Or will he lose his political bet that being “not his opponent” is all the reason people need to cast their ballot his direction?
I’m thinking the Harris campaign is wondering the same thing.
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