“Colin Allred will defend the American dream for future generations, because he knows how vital it is that opportunity exists for every kid in Texas who is willing to dream big. Colin’s grassroots campaign, rooted in his deep ties to the community, is building momentum every day and he is on track to flip a once deep red Republican district this November.” –DCCC Chairman Ben Ray Luján
To: Interested Parties
From: Cole Leiter, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: May 22, 2018
RE: The Case Against Pete Sessions
Congressman Sessions is the very portrait of a career Washington politician, deeply out of touch with a district that he has not truly lived in for years, and eager to pledge his allegiance to an historically unpopular Republican Congress and White House.
Session has no record of his own to present to voters: he has backed the establishment Republicans’ healthcare repeal and tax scam, supported President Trump’s border wall and refused to find a solution for DREAMers. Sessions’ record amounts to one party line vote after another, even when it’s bad for people in Dallas.
While Congressman Sessions will have to defend his out-of-touch Washington record, Colin Allred will define this race around his hometown roots and giving back to the community that opened up opportunities for him from a young age. Raised by a single mom who taught in Dallas public schools, Colin was a standout high school football star, who earned a full ride to Baylor, played five seasons in the NFL, and then went back to law school after a career-ending injury. Colin used his legal training to serve as a civil rights attorney defending affordable housing at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Colin has shown he will run the kind of grassroots campaign that will turn out the Democratic base and win Republican voters who firmly rejected Trump in 2016. He will do that by holding Sessions accountable for being a creature of Washington and out-of-step on the most important issues affecting voters in Dallas: affordable health care and the need to make sure the American dream is alive and well for all Americans.
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
EDITORIAL BOARD: “Allred, 35, has deep roots in this district and connections that he has maintained since graduating from Hillcrest High School. The powerful grassroots foundation of support he’s built here indicates he’s having some success expanding and diversifying the traditional Democratic base.” [Dallas Morning News, 5/3/2018]
Headline: “U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions faces rowdy town hall.” [Texas Tribune, 3/18/2017]
VIDEO: Pete Sessions tells town hall crowd in Richardson: “You don’t know how to listen’ [Dallas Morning News, 3/18/2018]
Headline: “Democrats attack Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions for voting for GOP health care bill.” [Dallas Morning News, 5/05/2017]
“Trump is likely even more unpopular in Sessions’ district than he was in 2016, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones, and Democrats will no doubt tie Sessions’ voting record on health care, immigration and taxes to the president’s agenda.” [Dallas Morning News, 2/05/2018]
Headline: “Rep. Pete Sessions says no to path to citizenship for Dreamers.” [Washington Times, 1/29/2018]
PETE SESSIONS: TRUMP’S MAN IN WASHINGTON’S SWAMP
Trump’s 98.7% Reliable Rubber Stamp
After Texas supported every Republican Presidential candidate since Ronald Reagan, voters in TX-32 swung more than 17 points to firmly reject President Trump in 2016. Congressman Sessions didn’t get the message, though, and continues to vote in lockstep with his Party in Congress and with President Trump 98.7% of the time. You name it, and Pete Sessions was happy to rubber-stamp his Party’s position: healthcare repeal; the Republican tax handout to big corporations paid for by middle class families; and Trump’s reckless approach to North Korea. Sessions’ eagerness to back the GOP and Trump agenda is a head scratcher.
Career Swamp Thing
After more than 20 years in Washington, Congressman Sessions has become a reliable vote for the DC special interests who have backed his campaigns, contributing hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars.
Take the financial industry, which has feathered Sessions’ nest to the tune of more than a million dollars – all while the Congressman was happy to serve as a reliable rubber stamp to weaken consumer protections and expose countless people to the worst abuses of reckless actors like Equifax. Or take the payday lending industry — Pete Sessions has accepted more than $200,000 from them and he’s served as a reliable vote to loosen regulations for an industry that takes advantage of veterans and so many others. Sessions’ close relationship to the industry even drew an ethics complaint.
Out of Touch with Dallas
Pete Sessions has simply forgotten what it means to answer to his voters. When asked to explain his votes on healthcare repeal to his own constituents, Sessions yelled at them, claiming that they “don’t know how to listen.” Voters are scared to lose their affordable healthcare, and if there’s one thing they know, it’s that Members of Congress are the ones who need to be listening to them. That’s particularly true when they’re standing with their political party in Washington, even when it hurts their constituents.
THE PATH TO VICTORY
Colin Allred has emerged from a crowded primary, winning newly energized Democratic voters. He did that with a message that translates smoothly to a general election: that we have a duty to ensure opportunity and the American dream is accessible for more people in our country.
In 2016, for the first time, TX-32 voted for the Democratic candidate for President when Hillary Clinton won the district by 2 points, a 17.4 percentage-point swing towards the Democrat from 2012. Part of this swing can be attributed to the district’s 62% suburban composition, a geographic makeup that has swung heavily against Republicans in the age of Donald Trump.
According to a Gallup-conducted poll from January of 2018, Trump’s approval ratings have gotten even worse in Texas since 2016, sinking to 39% of voters who approve of the President. That’s a big problem for Pete Sessions, who’s made a career out of walking his party’s line and stood with Trump 98.7% of the time.
And the big primary turnout makes it clear that 2016’s swing was not an aberration in TX-32. Democrats are energized and voters are rejecting today’s Republican Party in once solid-red Texas.
Increased voter engagement and energy has other clear upsides for Democrats in TX-32. With more than 22% of the district’s voting age population unregistered to vote, there are over 60,000 potential new Democratic voters. A competitive primary means multiple candidates working overtime to register and engage these same voters and makes it more likely they’ll turn out again in November to elect a Democrat.