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WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz this year, was among three Texas Democrats who voted on Wednesday to condemn President Joe Bidens handling of the southern border, rebuffing their party as Republicans continue to weaponize the migrant crisis in an election year.

The resolution denounces the Biden administrations open-borders policies and condemns the national security and public safety crisis that Republicans claim the administration has created on the border. U.S. Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Tyler, introduced the resolution. All Republicans voted for the resolution.

Allred's vote drew criticism from his electoral opponents from both sides. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who is running against Allred for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, blasted Allred for his vote, saying he sided with GOP extremists.

The Democratic nominee that goes up against Ted Cruz should fight tooth and nail against Trumps dangerous so-called policies. If our nominee agrees with Trump and Ted Cruz's idea of border security then we're in a hell of a lot of trouble, Gutierrez said in a statement.

A Cruz campaign spokesperson meanwhile called the move a "cowardly flip-flopping strategy" after Allred "consistently voted with his party for reckless border policies that benefit the undocumented, while weakening our country and its borders."

Allred responded to the criticism over his vote by touting his own bipartisan legislation that hes cosponsoring called the Dignity Act, which he said would help secure our border, provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and others who are living here and following our laws, and surge resources to our Border Patrol and border communities. U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, co-authored the Dignity Act with Florida Republican Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar.

Our immigration system is broken, and we need bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform that reflects our values and meets the needs of our economy not more partisan stunts that lead us nowhere, he said.

U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both centrist border Democrats, also voted for the resolution, however the two of them have previously been much more likely to entertain Republican proposals to harden the border in the past and have criticized members of their party for not giving the issue enough attention.

Migrants continue to arrive in historic numbers while our U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers remain stretched thin, Gonzalez, whose district Republicans are targeting this cycle, said in a statement. This is all at the expense of border communities, like those in the 34th Congressional District of Texas.

Allred has been a reliable Democratic vote, but he has more recently shown a willingness to take harder steps on the border. After Biden announced in October that the administration would open the door to constructing more walls on the Texas-Mexico border, Allred praised the decision as a necessary step.

The border has emerged as one of the biggest Republican attack points against Democrats. Cruz routinely lambastes the administration and Democrats for the number of migrants entering the country and the growth of human trafficking and drug cartels.

Cruz went head to head with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a Senate Judiciary hearing in March where he demanded the secretary resign over his handling of the border. Cruz also introduced a House-passed Republican border bill into the Senate that would increase penalties for illegal immigration, build more walls and expedite deportations. Democrats in both chambers have been emphatic that they would never accept the House Republican border bill.

Despite Allreds Wednesday vote, he has emphasized that he opposed Republicans border plans as too severe and performative.

I have long said we need comprehensive reform. But now more than ever extreme politicians need to stop their political stunts and come to the table to form a real, bipartisan solution, Allred said in a statement last week against both Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. That is something Ted Cruz has no interest in and something I will do as Senator.

Continue reading here:
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred joins Republicans to condemn Biden's handling of border - The Texas Tribune

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Barbara Lee Kicked Out of Hearing on Cuba by Republican Ironically Condemning Dictators  Truthout

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Barbara Lee Kicked Out of Hearing on Cuba by Republican Ironically Condemning Dictators - Truthout

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Where do Republican voters stand ahead of the New Hampshire primary?  ABC News

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Where do Republican voters stand ahead of the New Hampshire primary? - ABC News

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Actual governing threatens to trip up Republican anti-government messaging  MSNBC

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Actual governing threatens to trip up Republican anti-government messaging - MSNBC

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Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer during his caucus night event in Des Moines, Iowa. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption

Supporters of former President Donald Trump cheer during his caucus night event in Des Moines, Iowa.

After a year of campaigning and more than $120 million in ad spending in Iowa, the caucuses have come and gone.

And the result was ... what everyone pretty much expected.

Former President Donald Trump won in a landslide.

So, what's it all mean? Here are five takeaways:

Trump won by such a large margin that The Associated Press was able to call the race at 8:31 p.m. ET, just half an hour after voting began. It was able to do so because it conducts a massive voter survey and then it compares that to key precincts in the state, which showed Trump with an insurmountable lead.

So much of this race has been a race for second place, and that held up. Trump finished with more than 50% of the vote, had the most enthusiastic voters in polling, and they showed up despite predictions that they might not because of record cold weather and high expectations that he would win.

The GOP base is pretty much all in on Trump's election lies and conspiracies. According to media entrance polls of Iowa GOP caucusgoers sponsored by CNN, NBC News, CBS News and others:

The signs have been clear. Trump's campaign noticed it, it raised tons of money from these indictments, and Trump's lead has only expanded in the GOP nominating process this year. His lead in Iowa, according to an average of the polls, went up a net of 9 points since May.

With a general-election audience, it's a different story. An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll from October found that majorities of independents and Democrats believe he has done something illegal, and views of Trump haven't budged much Republicans love him, but majorities of everyone else have an unfavorable opinion of him.

So much of this primary campaign has been about the race for second place, but politics is not grenades and horseshoes. And even if coming close mattered, this wasn't a close finish.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was barely ahead of Nikki Haley, and more importantly, he lost to Trump by 30 points. That's the largest margin in Iowa caucus history. (Previously, the widest was 12.8 points.)

DeSantis is vowing to stay in, but it's hard to make the case for a path forward for him. Consider that he and the super PACs supporting him spent millions of dollars on campaign ads, he visited all 99 counties, got the endorsement of the state's popular governor and its most influential religious leader and it still didn't matter.

In fact, his support only went down from the beginning of the campaign. He topped out just shy of 30% in June and he never improved.

DeSantis modeled himself after Trump and tried to sell himself as Trump without the baggage, but Iowa Republicans just weren't buying it, didn't want to move on and went with the original. Now he's going to likely have to balance this campaign with his future in politics.

Trump is the head of the party, and if DeSantis wants a future in it, he is probably going to have to curry favor with Trump. And there's an argument that staying in and denying Haley a one-on-one race with Trump might be a way to do that, at least for a while.

Haley finished within a couple of thousand votes of DeSantis. And she denied Trump a clean sweep of all of Iowa's 99 counties. She won one county, Johnson County in the eastern part of the state by ONE vote.

But the stakes now for Haley in New Hampshire in a week have just gone up.

"Tonight, I will be back in the great state of New Hampshire," Haley said during her speech Monday night. She said the question before Americans "is very clear do you want more of the same or do you want a new generation of conservative leadership?"

Voters are shown checking in at a caucus site at Franklin Junior High on Monday in Des Moines, Iowa. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption

Voters are shown checking in at a caucus site at Franklin Junior High on Monday in Des Moines, Iowa.

She argued that "America deserves better" because majorities dislike both President Biden and Trump and don't like that they're both 80 or approaching it.

It's not a bad argument. Now she needs to show that in a more moderate state, where independents can vote, she can give Trump a real run for his money.

But there are some red flags for Haley going forward.

Her win in Johnson County is indicative of the problem she faces. The county, home to the University of Iowa, has the highest percentage of college degrees in the state. And look at the groups Haley won in the state overall:

Those are hardly the majority of Republican Party rank-and-file voters.

Plus, Trump won independents and those who said being able to beat Biden was the candidate quality that mattered most.

So, the electability argument Haley has been trying to make didn't resonate in Iowa, and her team spent a lot of money trying to drive that message home.

If she can't prove it to New Hampshire voters by winning or finishing a reasonably close second, it's going to be tough for her to convince donors and supporters that she should continue.

Turnout was low in these caucuses compared to the record-setting 2016 turnout. Only about 110,000 Republicans caucused with 99% of results in, as of 1:30 a.m. ET.

That represents less than 15% of the total number of registered Republicans in the state perhaps not surprising in the record cold. But Trump got almost 900,000 votes in Iowa in 2020.

Put another way, almost $124 million was spent on campaign ads in Iowa by the Republican candidates, more than any other state by far.

That translates to $1,124 per person who showed up to vote.

It's pretty amazing for so few voters to play such a prominent role in the presidential nominating process.

Read more here:
5 takeaways from the Iowa Republican caucus results - NPR

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