Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas) will try to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in a pivotal Senate contest this November.

Allred defeated state Sen. Roland Gutierrez and seven other Democrats on Tuesday in the Texas Democratic primary election for the U.S. Senate seat held by Cruz, who narrowly won re-election in 2018.

By winning more than 50% of the Democratic primary vote, Allred has avoided a runoff election against Gutierrez.

Allred has served in the House since 2019 and is a member of the moderate New Democrat Coalition. He played in the NFL before enrolling in law school and becoming a civil rights lawyer in the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Allred pitched himself as a smart strategic choice for Democrats, campaigning as a bipartisan cooperator and pointing to the fact that he defeated a long-serving incumbent Republican to win his House seat in the Dallas area.

Gutierrez presented himself as a more progressive option, saying during a debate in January that Democrats would win not by moving to the middle, but by inspiring every Democrat in this state to get new voters.

Allred maintained a massive fundraising advantage as well as a lead in the polls since announcing his candidacy last year.

Cruz, for his part, survived an unexpectedly strong challenge from Democrat Beto ORourke in 2018. In a desperate move the week before the election, Cruz falsely accused ORourkes campaign of funding a migrant caravan .

Cruz wound up prevailing by less than 3 percentage points in a state that Donald Trump won in 2020 by more than 5 percentage points. After the election, he essentially said never mind about the caravan allegation .

A likely topic in the general election will be Cruzs infamous 2021 trip to Cancun during a devastating winter storm that left millions of Texans without power.