Colin Allred Jumps into Texas Senate Race After Losing to Ted Cruz

Former Democratic Representative Colin Allred is running for Senate in Texas again after losing to Senator Ted Cruz (R) this past November.

Allred announced his campaign Tuesday with a video taking shots at incumbent Senator John Cornyn (R., Texas) and state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is running a MAGA primary challenge against Cornyn.

"Politicians like John Cornyn and Ken Paxton are too corrupt to care about us and too weak to fight for us. I know Washington is broken. The system is rigged. But it doesn't have to be this way," Allred said.

Allred leaned into his experience growing up with a single mother and eventually making it to the NFL, where he played linebacker for the Tennessee Titans for four seasons. He was first elected to Congress in 2018, flipping a Republican seat during a Democratic wave year.

Allred served three terms in the House before losing to Cruz in November by almost 9 points. At one point last summer, polls showed Allred neck-and-neck with Cruz, but the GOP incumbent pulled away down the stretch and ended up winning comfortably. Cruz's campaign successfully hit Allred for taking soft immigration stances, favoring gun restrictions, and supporting men competing in women's sports.

This time around, Allred is entering a potentially crowded Democratic primary, with former astronaut Terry Virts already in the race and Representative Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) potentially joining the fray. Former Senate and gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke, who narrowly lost to Cruz in 2018, has been hosting town halls across the state and has not ruled out another run for office.

"Collin Allred is an out of touch Washington, DC liberal who supported Joe Biden’s open borders, biological men competing against our daughters, and even said it would be 'better' if the Second Amendment had never been written. Texas voters have already rejected Allred for the radical liberal he is, and they’ll do it again next fall," said Chris Gustafson, communications director for the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund.

On the GOP side, Paxton launched a primary campaign against Cornyn in what is expected to be an expensive, bitter primary between MAGA and the GOP old guard. Democrats are hopeful they could potentially win the seat in the 2026 midterm election against the scandal-plagued Paxton if he defeats Cornyn.

Democrats have long dreamed of flipping Texas blue, but President Donald Trump's vast inroads with latino voters have prevented it from happening up to this point. Trump saw noticeable shifts right in Texas's heavily latino border counties that were hit the hardest by the Biden administration lax approach to illegal immigration.