DALLAS — State Senator Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio, faces an uphill fight to become the Democrat who will challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Ted Cruz next year.
But, in the latest episode of Y’all-itics, he explained to the Jasons why he thinks he can win -- particularly against perceived frontrunner Congressman Colin Allred.
"We do have a primary electorate, and Hispanics have performed well," said Gutierrez. "But beyond that, I think that our message is vastly different from Colin’s. He’s a nice person, but he has this message of, y'know, we’re going to incrementally change things. We’re going to work with these folks. I know he uses the word bipartisanship a lot. It’s a nice word if it were real. But our state and our country is on fire right now. I mean, we are really, really hurting."
The Democrat says the pivotal issue heading into 2024 remains guns, particularly in the devastating wake left behind after the Uvalde massacre, which is in his district.
But he made clear on Y’all-itics that he doesn’t want to take guns away from anyone, telling us he also owns plenty of them.
Gutierrez does, however, want to pursue what he calls common sense solutions, such as raising age limits and allowing extreme risk protective orders.
"Your child is just taken away in a moment in the most horrible way you could imagine," the Senator told us on Y’all-itics. "Do you really think that inflation or high cost of gas or even immigration matters to you from that point forward in your life? I submit to you that it doesn’t. And we’re living in a state and we’re living in a country that is unique to this problem. The leading countries of the world do not have this problem because we have allowed anybody and everybody to have a gun. And in this state, you can walk down the street with an AR-15 on your shoulder and a cop cannot even ask you a question as to why."
Listen to the entire episode of Y’all-itics to hear Senator Gutierrez’s position on other issues such as Israel, Ukraine, immigration and inflation. He also shared what Texas voters likely don’t know about him. Y’all-itics will be speaking to all of the leading candidates in the race for U.S. Senate, so keep checking in and save these podcasts to listen to again before the March primary. And go vote!