Former Democratic Rep. Colin Allred announced Monday that he is ending his Senate campaign in Texas and running for the House, shaking up the primary just hours before the filing deadline.
Allred's announcement that he is instead running for the redrawn 33rd Congressional District in North Texas comes as Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett has been openly weighing a Senate run. She is announcing her decision later Monday afternoon.
“In the past few days, I’ve come to believe that a bruising Senate Democratic primary and runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election unified against the danger posed to our communities and our Constitution by Donald Trump and one of his Republican bootlickers Paxton, Cornyn, or Hunt,” Allred said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve made the difficult decision to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate.”
Allred went on to say that he is “nowhere near done serving my community and our state” and that he is running in the new 33rd District, a deeply Democratic seat that was redrawn by a Republican-led redistricting effort.
“The 33rd district was racially gerrymandered by Trump in an effort to further rig our democracy but it’s also the community where I grew up attending public schools and watching my mom struggle to pay for our groceries. ... It’s the community where I was raised, and where Aly and I are now raising our two boys. It is my home,” Allred said.
Allred had been running for Senate after losing a race to GOP Sen. Ted Cruz last year by 9 points even as President Donald Trump won Texas by 14 points. The new 33rd District is deep-blue, and Trump would have lost it by 33 points had the new lines been in place last year.
Allred's decision also shakes up the Senate race, which could feature Crockett in addition to state Rep. James Talarico, who has decided to run. Talarico had built a national profile as one of the legislators who fled the state to block the redistricting effort, which ultimately moved forward.
Crockett, meanwhile, has said her campaign has conducted polling showing her in a strong position were she to run for Senate, but stressed in recent days that she had yet to make a final decision.
“The data says that I can win,” Crockett said in an MS NOW interview after the Thanksgiving holiday, noting she can build a coalition of “Black and brown” voters.
“I am closer to yes than I am no,” Crockett said of a possible Senate run. That weekend, Crockett also spoke with Allred and Talarico, two sources with knowledge of the calls said.
Allred's decision to run for the House raises questions about the candidates in North Texas, with incumbents, including Crockett and Democratic Reps. Marc Veasey and Julie Johnson, grappling with the new district boundaries amid the filing deadline Monday evening. The Texas Democratic Party's unofficial list of candidate filings shows Veasey, who had endorsed Allred for Senate, had also filed to run in the 33rd District.
