Allred Launches Senate Bid Aiming for Cornyn Seat

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, the former professional football player who ran a spirited but ultimately unsuccessful bid to oust Sen. Ted Cruz last year, launched a new Senate campaign Tuesday, hoping to claim the seat currently held by Republican John Cornyn.

Allred, who served three terms in the House before taking on Cruz, opened his campaign vowing to be a voice for those who are working harder, but finding it ever more difficult to get ahead.

“You deserve somebody who will fight for you,” he said in a video announcing his candidacy.

“Real change might feel impossible, but I’m not giving up,” he said.

In an interview with his hometown Dallas Morning News, Allred said that he knows from experience that Washington is “broken.”

“I’m going to be laser-focused in this campaign on getting back to some of the basics, on lowering costs, on fighting for health care, for fighting against corrupt politicians like John Cornyn and Ken Paxton,” he told the newspaper.

Allred lost to Cruz by 8.5 percentage points last year, but Democrats are hopeful the contest in 2026, a mid-term year when there is likely to be at least some backlash to Trump administration policies, will be more like 2018, when former Rep. Beto O’Rourke came within 2.6 points of knocking off Cruz.

Allred is also likely to benefit from the primary battle on the Republican side, pitting Cornyn, a four-term incumbent against Ken Paxton, the state’s hardline conservative attorney general.

So far, Allred is the first major Democratic candidate to enter the Senate race.

Former astronaut Terry Virts and former flight attendant Mike Swanson have entered the primary, but significant potential intra-party challengers remain on the side lines.

These include O’Rourke, Rep. Jaoquin Castro and state Rep. James Talarico, who is considered by many to be a rising star in the Texas Democratic party.

For now, Allred seems content to challenge the Republicans head-to-head.

“Texans are working harder than ever, not getting as much time with their kids, missing those special moments, all to be able to afford less,” he said in his announcement video. “And the people that we elected to help — politicians like John Cornyn and Ken Paxton — are too corrupt to care about us and too weak to fight for us.”

“In six years in Congress, I never took a dime of corporate PAC money, never traded a single stock. Never had a hint of scandal,” Allred said at another point in the video, presumably taking a shot at Paxton, who is sometimes perceived as a magnet for scandal and who was acquitted on 16 articles of impeachment alleging corruption and bribery in 2023.

In addition to his other attributes, there is already talk that Allred, a centrist, might be the candidate moderate Republicans turn to with their support.

Last time around, in his race against Cruz, Allred was endorsed by then-U.S. Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, both members of the GOP who were on the outs with their party.

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