Colin Allred Officially Launches U.S. Senate Race, Faces Crowded Field

Former U.S. Congressman Colin Allred, who lost in his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz in November, has announced he will again run for the U.S. Senate.

In his video announcement, the 42-year-old former NFL player immediately reminded viewers that he is a former NFL player and that he was raised by a single mom, two of the main bio bullet points presented during his previous Senate run.

In the video, he uses those examples to highlight his other role as “a fighter,” before showing a distinct difference in the messaging between his 2023 announcement video and now.

“You shouldn't have to have a son in the NFL to own a home,” he says. “Everything’s backwards. Folks who play by the rules and keep the faith just can’t seem to get ahead, but the folks who cut corners and cut deals, well, they’re doing just fine.”

When Allred announced his run against Cruz in May 2023, he immediately took aim at the polarizing but powerful senator by saying Texans “shouldn't be embarrassed” by our elected officials. He said gaffes such as Cruz getting caught fleeing to Mexico during the deadly 2021 winter storms were signs that Cruz wasn’t fit for Texans.

Clearly, not enough Texans agreed, as Cruz won the November election handily, much easier than he had previously when he narrowly defeated Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke in 2018.
Following the defeat, which saw the GOP pick up power across the country, most notably in the White House with President Donald Trump’s return, Allred’s campaign was picked apart and criticized for an approach that many critics deemed as too mild and defensive, while focusing too much on topics such as abortion and his previous bi-partisan legislative efforts instead of the big ticket issues like the economy.

At least in the span of his video message, it seems as though Allred took notes on the post-mortem campaign criticisms. He does, however, eventually address the elephants in the room.

“Texans are working harder than ever, not getting enough time with their kids, missing those special moments, all to be able to afford less,” he says. “And the people 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.”

Although it can be argued that Cornyn, the incumbent Allred is looking to unseat in 2026, and Paxton, the scandal-ridden, seemingly bulletproof, but highly popular Texas attorney general, who also recently announced his run for the U.S. Senate, do not have as strong of a national profile as Cruz, it’s not a stretch tio suggest that either Republican is any less powerful or difficult to defeat in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to a statewide office in over three decades.

At this point, Allred doesn’t only face opposition from the other party. Other popular Democrats, including O’Rourke and the U.S. Rep. from San Antonio, Joaquin Castro, have also indicated a possibility they will enter the race. But Allred enters this race with a much higher profile in Texas and beyond than he had when he opposed Cruz. And according to Poltico, certain polling suggests that Allred can be competitive in an election against Paxton, who has polled well ahead of Cornyn for the Republican nomination thus far.