Colin Allred
On a night when he urged a group of erstwhile Republicans to stay in the fight, former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred said he’s “seriously considering” a 2026 Senate campaign against incumbent John Cornyn, or the winner of what’s expected to be a bruising GOP primary.
Allred appeared at an event sponsored by Principles First, a group of conservatives opposed to President Donald Trump. It was his first public appearance since his loss to Republican Ted Cruz.
In an interview with The Dallas Morning News before the event, Allred lamented his loss to Cruz, briefly discussed his political future and delighted in the time he’s spending with his young family. It was his first public interview since his Senate defeat.
The Dallas Democrat said he would make a decision on another Senate run this summer.
“I’m looking at it and seriously considering it,” Allred said. “This is a time for everybody to realize just what’s at stake and how important it is that we all stay involved.”
Cornyn released a video Wednesday launching his Senate campaign in what’s expected to be an explosive Republican primary. Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton is in the exploratory stage of a potential Senate campaign against Cornyn. Other Republicans, including U.S. Reps. Beth Van Duyne of Irving and Wesley Hunt of Houston, have been mentioned as potential GOP Senate candidates.[…]
Throughout the hour-long conversation, Allred criticized Trump administration policies.
“Folks elected Donald Trump so they could buy groceries, not Greenland,” Allred said.
Allred also criticized some of Trump’s cabinet picks, saying Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “couldn’t manage a hot dog stand” and that there were concerns that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was a “Russian plant.”
The Republican-controlled Senate should have blocked many of Trump’s appointments, Allred said. And he predicted more controversies akin to the security breach in which top Trump officials inadvertently included a journalist in a group chat about the administration’s plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen.
“This is the first example of what will likely be many that we will see in which some kind of nonsense happens because we have people in place who are unqualified and shouldn’t be on the job in the first place.”
Allred also questioned Trump’s use of tariffs, saying Texas lawmakers should be against them. Earlier this month Trump postponed 25% tariffs on many imports from Canada and Mexico as fears of a trade war persisted among some economic experts. The White House says its tariff policy involves stopping the smuggling of fentanyl across the nation’s borders.
“If you’re an elected official in Texas, you better be against tariffs,” Allred said. “We’re the No. 1 trade state in the country … that’s what we do. That’s our economy.”
The case for an Allred rerun is simple: He’s now actually run a statewide campaign, he raised plenty of money for it, he was easily the top-performing Democrat on the 2024 ticket, and there’s no one else remotely ready who has expressed any interest. I love Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Greg Casar too, but maybe let them finish their second term in office before promoting them to a statewide run. If either of them wants to take on Ted Cruz in 2030, I’ll be all over that.
My advice to Allred for now is to keep talking like this. Attack Trump and his army of morons and miscreants at every step. (Work some more Elon into it, too.) Make it clear that you will act as a member of the opposition party. The bet is simply that Trump et al will continue to make things worse, and at some point enough people – which, let’s be clear, is going to need to include a non-trivial number of people who have voted for Trump and Cornyn in the past – will be receptive to that. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t – maybe things don’t get quite bad enough, maybe there just aren’t enough people willing to try something else – but it’s a clear path. We’ll see what he decides to do. Reform Austin has more.
He ran a crap campaign, listening to the wrong people. Instead of doing the Beto-like everything, everywhere, all at once strategy, he stayed at home and didn’t get out there to actually talk to the voters.
He had a similar type of charisma and could have pulled it off, but he squandered it. Plus he played to the middle a little too much and really pissed off the activists. Normally I don’t mind pissing off activists because I tend to want someone who can make the trains run on time, not the ideologues. But you anger them at your own peril.
If he does run, I suspect Paxton will be his opponent. For all the selling out and self abasement Cornyn has done, he still isn’t MAGA enough, and he’ll get primaried, if he doesn’t decide on retirement. That’s how I’ll bet.
Agree that Allred’s last campaign was quite meh.
Maybe this time he will run as a Democrat.
A FDR Democrat.
how does one love jasmine crockett when she hasnt passed not one bill in either the texas house or congress. Ig you can love all the camera time she gets but shes a highly ineffective congresswoman.
The fact that he’s appearing in front of Republicans instead of Democrats tells me all I need to know.
We do NOT need Allred. For anything.