CHICAGO — On the final night of the Democratic National Convention, Texas Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, joined Democrats from across the country to speak on the importance of this year’s general election and make the case for himself and Vice President Kamala Harris. 

What You Need To Know

  • Allred, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, discussed his and Harris’ childhoods, both being raised by single mothers, and how that shaped his politics

  • Earlier in the day, Allred spoke to the Texas Democratic Delegation about the state of his race against Cruz. He proudly shared the results of a recent poll from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University that showed him just 2 points behind Cruz

  • Allred made no mention of Harris during his speech to the Texas delegates, and his support for the Democratic presidential nominee has been muted compared to others in the party

  • Mark Jones, a researcher at the Hobby School of Public Affairs, told Spectrum News that Allred’s decision to keep Harris at arm’s length is a “good strategy” because of her more negative favorability rating among likely voters in Texas

Allred, who is running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, discussed his and Harris’ childhoods, both being raised by single mothers, and how that shaped his politics.

“When we talk about lowering costs, I think about the times when we went to the grocery store when I was growing up and swiped the debit card and said a little prayer. But my mom and my community in Texas gave me a chance to chase my version of the American Dream,” Allred said. 

Allred talked about playing football at Baylor University and in the NFL and then retiring from the sport to become a civil rights lawyer and later representing his hometown in Congress. 

“Now I’m the guy who’s going to turn Texas’ Senate seat blue,” said Allred. “You know, in the NFL, we had a term for guys like Donald Trump and my opponent Ted Cruz: ‘me guys.’”

Allred went on to say that the American experience has never been about “me” but about “we.”

“As President Obama said, the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word we. We the people. We shall overcome. Yes we can,” Allred said. “And we’ve got a message for the me guys, we is more powerful than me. We will protect, restore reproductive freedom. We will secure the border. We will protect Medicare and Social Security. And we’ll turn the page and write a new chapter for this country and elect Kamala Harris as the next president and beat Ted Cruz.”

Earlier in the day, Allred spoke to the Texas Democratic Delegation about the state of his race against Cruz. He proudly shared the results of a recent poll from the University of Houston and Texas Southern University that showed him just 2 points behind Cruz. 

That same poll had Harris about 5 percentage points behind former President Donald Trump, which is an improvement for Democrats as a June survey from the same pollsters had Trump 9 points ahead of President Joe Biden, before Biden dropped out of the race.

Allred made no mention of Harris during his speech to the Texas delegates, and his support for the Democratic presidential nominee has been muted compared to others in the party. 

Mark Jones, a researcher at the Hobby School of Public Affairs, told Spectrum News that Allred’s decision to keep Harris at arm’s length is a “good strategy” because of her more negative favorability rating among likely voters in Texas.  

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