Colin Allred
Democrat Colin Allred launched his campaign for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, making a second run at the upper chamber after failing to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz last year.
“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,” Allred, a former Dallas congressman who gave up his seat to run against Cruz, 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.”
Allred is the first major Democrat to announce his candidacy for the seat currently held by Cornyn, but several others have indicated their interest, including Beto O’Rourke, a former El Paso congressman and statewide campaign veteran; U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, a longtime San Antonio legislator; and state Rep. James Talarico, a four-term lawmaker from Austin who is seen as a rising star in the party.
Former astronaut Terry Virts and former flight attendant Mike Swanson are already running in the Democratic primary.
Driving Democratic hopes of winning statewide for the first time since 1994 is the potential to run against the embattled hardline Attorney General Ken Paxton, who is challenging Cornyn for the Republican nomination. Texas Democrats also hope 2026, a midterm election year, will bring a wave of backlash to the Trump administration that can help surge a Democrat to statewide office.
Whether other major Democrats will challenge Allred for the nomination remains to be seen.
Allred first appeared on the radar in March, while Virts formally launched his candidacy last week. With all due apologies, I had not heard of Mike Swanson before reading this story.
A May poll by Texas Southern University found that 45% of voters had a favorable opinion of Allred, the highest proportion of six potential Senate candidates surveyed. A matchup between Allred and Paxton showed the Republican attorney general winning by just two percentage points. (The same poll found Paxton leading Cornyn by nine points.)
Allred’s campaign against Cruz last year — in which he pitched himself as a more effective and bipartisan alternative to the conservative firebrand — was criticized by some Democrats for its buttoned-up approach, a sharp contrast to the electrifying style O’Rourke brought in 2018, when he came within 3 points of toppling Cruz. Allred lost by 8.5 points, a wider margin than polls had shown going into Election Day, and despite having outraised Cruz throughout his campaign.
Still, he outpaced then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the state to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump by nearly 14 percentage points. In a June interview on the Dallas-based Lone Star Politics show, Allred said he would run “differently” this time around, now that he’s out of Congress.
I have seen quite a few reactions of the “ugh, not this guy again” variety since Allred first spoke of his interest in running again. You can vote for Terry Virts or possibly some other high-profile hopeful if that list includes you. My view is that Allred drew a fair number of crossover votes last year, which is how he ended up as the top Democratic performer in 2024. In a better year, which 2026 ought to be, that could be the difference in a sufficiently close race between eking out a victory and falling just short. No guarantees he can do that again, of course, but he has at least done it once. I would advise him to acknowledge the criticisms of his 2024 campaign and act accordingly. Pledging to be a fighter who will take specific actions as Senator to check Trump’s power and hold him accountable would also help. As an early entrant into the race, he has the opportunity to do that before everyone’s attention is divided.
I don’t find him inspiring, don’t know why he would do better this time around.
If no Latinos run, I may decide to put my name on there just cause.
His previous campaign was flat and uninspiring. He has no great love for the LGBTQIA2SPIRIT community. Unless that changes he will miss a lot of D votes. I really like Talarico! Seems to walk his talk and functions as a genuine Christian ought to
I would think that Talarico would have an even stronger appeal to cross-over voters than Allred, if better known. My view is that Beto and Allred are wounded candidates from their prior losses. But I really don’t think any D will win statewide in 2026.
I would like to see Talarico run for Governor, Castro run for Senate, and maybe Beto for Lt Gov (Vicki Goodwin in not well enough known everywhere, maybe 2030?). Allred burned his bridge with me in 24.