Ahead of next year's midterm elections, former Representative Colin Allred, a Texas Democrat, sees the Lone Star State as "maybe the biggest test for Democrats ," telling Newsweek if his party "can build the coalition that we need here, then we can do it anywhere."

Running for the U.S. Senate , Allred, a former NFL linebacker and civil rights lawyer, is attempting, once again, to do what no Democrat has done in Texas in more than 30 years—win a statewide election. The former three-term congressman ran unsuccessfully to unseat incumbent GOP Senator Ted Cruz last year, but as he pointed out, he did better than Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris .

"I'm proud that we outran or outperformed, whatever you want to say, our presidential ticket dramatically a

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