Colin Allred announced that he planned on seeking the Democratic nomination for Senate last May, joining a long list of Texas Democratic hopefuls who shared the goal of flipping a statewide seat for the first time in three decades. The comparisons to Beto O’Rourke, who ran against Ted Cruz in 2018 and set a new high-water mark in this century for Democrats in Texas, soon followed: both were relatively green U.S. congressmen when they announced bids, both defeated entrenched incumbents to get to Washington, D.C., and they were running against the same man for Senate. But Allred isn’t here for the comparisons. In his mind, he’s a different candidate running in a more dire time for Texas’s 30 million residents. Mainly, he thinks he’s distinct from O’Rourke because he believes he’ll actually win.
Allred, a former NFL player, first won Texas’s Thirty-second Congressional District, anchored in Dallas, in 2018. He benefited from O’Rourke’s strength at the top of the ticket that year. Since entering the race for Senate, he almost immediately started attracting media attention and has amassed a massive war chest that makes him hard to dismiss. But the race is still Cruz’s to lose: the incumbent’s lead ranges from 6 to 13 percentage points in recent polls.
Last week, Texas Monthly chatted with Ted Cruz about the race. Now, it’s Allred’s turn to discuss some of the hottest issues in the contest. As with Cruz’s interview, we annotated Allred’s replies with further context and clarification.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Texas Monthly: The last time Texas elected a nonincumbent Democrat to the Senate was Lloyd Bentsen in 1970—more than a decade before you were born. Many Texas voters might comment that the state is doing OK, all things considered. We’re growing and our economy is vibrant. Why should Texans start voting for Democratic Senate candidates now?
Colin Allred: To me, this is not about voting for Democrats. This race is about me versus Ted Cruz, specifically. In Cruz, we have a senator who has not been doing the job. I have a very different approach. During my time in Congress I’ve been the most bipartisan member of the Texas delegation. To me, that is rooted in my roots here in Texas. I was raised by a single mom, went to school in Dallas, made it to Baylor [University] on scholarship, and then to the National Football League. I believe I made it this far because of the community that I grew up in. Our future is put at risk by extremists like Cruz.
[In 2021, Allred was recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for his bipartisan bonafides with a Jefferson–Hamilton award, an honor given to members to have demonstrated a willingness to work across the aisle. That year, Allred was one of 22 House members to receive the accolade, but he wasn’t the only Texan on the list. Embattled Congressman Henry Cuellar, of Laredo, was also recognized by the chamber and even received a higher score than Allred: 99 percent to Allred’s 96 percent. In 2023, Allred won a similar award from the Common Ground Committee, which rates how effectively their elected official embodies the spirit and practice of bipartisanship. Allred was given a score of 79 out of 100, which is the highest score received by a member of Texas’s delegation. The same entity gave Cruz a score of 30.]
TM: You’re raising historic amounts of money in your race against Cruz, nearly $30 million since you entered the race, in fact. But polls show that you’re still trailing him—by as much as double digits. I know you raised more in this year’s first quarter than Beto O’Rourke did in 2018, but, as we know, money alone isn’t enough and you have to do better than O’Rourke. How are you running your campaign differently from his?
CA: I’ve been really humbled and thrilled that so many Texans have decided to support the campaign. I think our average donation is around $30 and I know what that means. I imagine folks who are giving amounts like $5 or $10 are doing so because they have hope in their state and hope that things can change. To me, that’s incredibly important and I appreciate it.
[According to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan group based out of Washington, D.C. that tracks money in politics, roughly 44 percent of Allred’s donations this cycle came from out-of-state donors. About 55 percent of Cruz’s haul came from those who do not live in Texas.]
I’m a very different candidate from O’Rourke and I’m running a very different campaign. My focus has always been on trying to tell my story so that Texans know who I am. You don’t have to just trust that I’ll work across the aisle and not be a bomb-thrower; you can see that that’s how I’ve served. We also have different issues. We’re now experiencing a near-total ban on abortion, which wasn’t necessarily an issue in 2018. This is a different time and a different campaign.
TM: Earlier this year, you joined Republicans—and a handful of U.S. House Democrats—in supporting a resolution that said President Biden’s “open borders policies” have created a “national security and public safety crisis along the southwest border.” What specific Biden-era policies are you referencing?
CA: That was a difficult vote, but one where I thought it was important to send a message that the status quo is unacceptable. What I want to see—and what I’ve wanted to see for some time—is much more action and urgency around addressing what was an expanding crisis. When you have 300,000 crossings in the month of December, which is a record for a single month, you have to have a surge of resources and a corresponding change in policy to try and address that. I think we saw some of that in what ultimately became the bipartisan Senate bill [on immigration], which attempted to address the asylum process in particular. That, I think, is where the real abuse has been. About 90 percent of the folks who are coming in and are trying to seek asylum are going to get rejected eventually, but it’s going to take several years for that to happen because of the severe backlogs that we have in terms of our immigration judges and our inability to process these kinds of numbers.
The other thing that I wanted to see was more playing defense—not just on the 1-yard line, meaning not just at our border, but working with Mexico and some of the intervening countries to try and stop the flow of these migrants. When the bipartisan immigration bill came out of the Senate, I thought we were going to pass it and it would become law. But it didn’t because folks like Cruz opposed it because they want to have the issue to run on in November. And to me, that has to be unacceptable to Texans.
[The foreign aid and immigration overhaul bill, unveiled to members of Congress in February, would’ve required asylum seekers to prove that they could not have moved to another part of their country to avoid persecution in order to gain refuge in the U.S. and expedited cases for those who qualify for it. It also would’ve given the president far-reaching powers to restrict illegal migrant crossing at the U.S.–Mexico border. The bill failed in the Senate after it was struck down during a procedural vote by all but four Republicans, following the lead of Donald Trump, who opposed it. Both Cruz and Senator John Cornyn helped sink the package, decrying it as too weak. Cruz has introduced a harder-line border security bill that would continue the construction of the border wall, limit asylum eligibility, and require asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico. A House counterpart of his bill passed, but Senate Democrats made clear they would never support such a measure.]
TM: What immigration policies would you support that are different from Biden’s?
CA: I’m part of a bipartisan bill called the Dignity Act of 2023 that Congresswoman Veronica Escobar [of El Paso] is helping lead and that lays out the framework of what I want to see us do. It’s a comprehensive immigration reform bill that better matches the needs of our immigration system and economy, and secures our border. It also has a pathway out of the shadows for Dreamers [migrants who came into the U.S. as children under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program] and for folks who have been here who have been following the law. We know that this is what the bill is ultimately going to look like, but we also know that Cruz is never going to be part of those negotiations. He also probably isn’t going to vote in favor of it.
[The bill doesn’t appear to be moving through Congress. In 2023, it was referred to a House subcommittee and has languished there since.]
There’s probably no other state in the country that’s going to be more impacted by a reformed immigration system. So what I’ve also been focused on is addressing the asylum system and also supporting our U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel, who have an incredibly complicated job. My grandfather was a customs officer in Brownsville, Texas, after serving in the Navy. I’m worried about some of the downstream impacts of them being overworked. Their job has become so much more complicated with really sophisticated fentanyl and illicit drug trafficking going on. So it’s not just the migrant issue. I also want to deal with drug trafficking as well as addressing how we can continue getting along with Mexico, which is our No. 1 trading partner.
But when we see these surges, it’s our border communities that bear the brunt. Those communities have to bear some of the cost of that. Their local Catholic charities will be maxed out. And they’ll have to use municipal resources to try and deal with what is, ultimately, a federal province. We have to act at the federal level.
TM: To clarify, why do you think what you’re suggesting regarding solutions to stabilize the Texas–Mexico border would be more effective than what the Biden administration is currently doing?
CA: Well, they have to act. And that’s what I’ve been calling on for some time. There have been some changes—we’ve all seen lower numbers in terms of folks coming to the border in the early months of this year. I think that’s a positive step. But I want them to act while also recognizing that anything they do will be limited. Ultimately, this is up to Congress. Congress has not addressed immigration in a comprehensive way since the Reagan era. We’ve had false starts, such as when George W. Bush and Ted Kennedy came together on an immigration reform bill that fell apart at the last second. Barack Obama had one with the gang of eight, including folks like Senator Marco Rubio, [of Florida], that fell apart at the last second, too. We know what the framework looks like. We pretty much know what we need to do. But we also need to have leadership that will actually try and do it.
TM: Are there ways former President Trump’s border policies worked better for the U.S.?
CA: I think we need to have short-, medium-, and long-term plans. In the short-term, I want to address the issues that are driving so much migration [to the United States]. In the medium-term, as I’ve said, we need to have comprehensive immigration reform. And long-term, we need to try and stabilize some of the countries where these folks are coming from. In my opinion, having a focus on the border is appropriate, which I saw from the Trump administration. But we have to do it in a way that’s consistent with our values. I reject this idea that in order to have a secure border, we have to treat people in a way that is inhumane.
TM: The Texas Democratic Party’s executive committee unanimously passed a resolution supporting a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas War. However, you’ve said that you don’t support a ceasefire, calling the conflict “a war of choice by Hamas.” Do you make any distinction between Hamas and the millions of civilians living in Gaza and under constant bombardment?
CA: I do. I was in Israel not too long ago and I visited a kibbutz. There you can meet some of the most peace-loving Israelis you can possibly come across. We were supposed to meet with a Gazan living in Gaza City, named Mohammed, who had four kids, but he couldn’t make it out that day. He actually Zoomed into the communal lunch room where we were and we all had a discussion about what was happening in Gaza and the hope that, one day, we could have two states living peacefully, side-by-side. Mohammed was certainly not a supporter of Hamas, and he was concerned about what they were doing to his children. And, to be clear, the folks in the kibbutz weren’t supporting [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, they were the ones who were protesting [judicial reform] on the streets pretty much every night at that time.
[Allred’s team later clarified that he was in Israel in February 2023. A kibbutz is a community where people live and work together on a voluntary basis.]
What’s happening now is not working for either side. We have to bring this conflict to an end and for the hostages to come home. I want to move toward, what I hope can be, a peaceful and independent Palestinian state next to a secure, stable, and democratic Jewish state in Israel. That has to be the end goal and the United States plays an important role in that.
What I was saying when I said [I opposed a ceasefire] was that we need to have an adult conversation about this. Not one that’s just about slogans or things that ultimately won’t lead to a lasting peace. I’ve tried to address every issue as honestly and as head-on as I can, while also doing what I think is best for the state of Texas.
[According to the Working Families Party, as of May 8, at least 94 members of Congress, all Democrats, have called for a ceasefire in the Israel–Hamas War. Members of the Texas delegation who have pledged their support for a ceasefire include Greg Casar, of Austin; Joaquin Castro, of San Antonio; Veronica Escobar, of El Paso; Al Green, of Houston; Lloyd Doggett, of Austin; Jasmine Crockett, of Dallas; and Sylvia Garcia, of Houston.]
TM: You voted in favor of a bipartisan bill requiring TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest from the app in order for it to continue operating in the U.S. Why do you and your staff continue to post videos to TikTok if you’re worried about national security concerns associated with the video-sharing platform?
CA: The concern isn’t that TikTok, as it currently exists, is a national security threat. The concern is that the People’s Republic of China could use the algorithm, the app, and the data that they’re collecting to influence elections. This is one of those situations where you have classified briefings and you have more access to information than what I’m allowed to share publicly. But I do want to say this to Texans: I don’t want to restrict your ability to use this app. I just want to make sure that a potential adversary isn’t using this in a way that could be malicious. What we’re doing here is not a ban on TikTok. It’s a divestiture, which we’ve done with other apps in the past. To me, TikTok is an important way to reach folks.
[In 2016, a U.S. government panel asked the owners of the LGBTQ dating app, Grindr, who were Chinese, to divest citing concerns regarding national security risks. The app was sold by its Chinese parent company to San Vicente Acquisition for more than $600 million.]
TM: On the campaign trail ahead of this year’s March primaries, you’ve taken positions—for example, opposing calls for a ceasefire and condemning Biden’s immigration policies, as we’ve discussed—that have angered some of the state’s most liberal voters. Even so, you handily won your primary in March against state senator Roland Gutierrez, of San Antonio, who positioned himself as the most progressive candidate. Do you think Democratic candidates need to stand up to the party’s liberal wing if they hope to break thirty years of failure in statewide elections?
CA: I think I just have to be myself. The way I’ve always run for office—but also tried to serve in office—is to highlight how we can bring people together on our shared values.
TM: Right, but Democrats haven’t won a statewide election in Texas since 1994. I’m curious why you think that is and what you think the party’s biggest problems are?
CA: Again, this is a different time and a different election. What we’re dealing with now are new challenges that have to be addressed. I won my [congressional] race in 2018 by beating an incumbent Republican who no one thought I could beat. But we did it, I think, by telling a story about who we were as a community and by building a broad coalition of both Democrats and Republicans. That’s the same approach that I’m going to take in this race.
- More About:
- Ted Cruz
