Ex-House Democrat drops out of Texas Senate race as Jasmine Crockett candidacy rumors swirl

Former House Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, is dropping out of the Lone Star State's Senate race, he announced on Monday.

Allred's announcement comes as rumors swirl about progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, potentially entering the fray as soon as late Monday afternoon.

"l'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 [Attorney General Ken Paxton, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, or Rep. Wesley Hunt, R-Texas]," Allred said in a statement.

"That's why l've made the difficult decision to end my campaign for the U.S. Senate."

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Allred said he would instead run in the newly-redrawn 33rd Congressional District in Texas, which is currently represented by Rep. Marc Veasey, D-Texas, under previously-created boundaries.

It's not clear yet where Veasey will run for re-election in 2026, but Allred is already expected to face a primary against current Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas. Johnson is switching districts to run in the newly-redrawn 33rd, which now includes more of Dallas County while cutting out areas of nearby Tarrant County.

"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," Allred said.

The Supreme Court last week upheld a new congressional map passed by the GOP-dominated Texas legislature and signed into law by longtime Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that creates five more right-leaning House districts in the Lone Star State.

Allred, a college football star at Baylor University who went on to play linebacker with the Tennessee Titans in the National Football League (NFL) and later worked as a civil rights lawyer, was first elected to the House in 2018, flipping a red seat. He won re-elections in his Dallas area district in 2020 and 2022.

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As the Democrats' 2024 Senate nominee in Texas, Allred aimed to dethrone GOP firebrand Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. But Allred ended up losing to Cruz by eight points in last year's election, in a Senate race that was one of the most expensive in the country.

Allred launched a second straight bid for the Senate in July.

But Allred didn't have the Democratic field to himself for long. James Talarico, a Democratic state lawmaker from Texas with a surging national profile, jumped into the Lone Star State's high-profile Senate race in September.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News first reported on Sunday night that Crockett would launch a bid for Senate after facing her own tough House race decisions following the GOP's redraw of Texas' congressional map.

She is expected to make an announcement about her political future at 5:30 p.m. ET on Monday. Candidates in Texas have until Monday evening to file for their campaigns.

Crockett is currently in her second term as a U.S. House member and has already made a name for herself as a progressive firebrand both on social media and during hearings in the House Oversight Committee.

Crockett has notably compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and aspects of the Republican Party to fascism. 

But her bombastic style has also made Crockett a superstar within the Democratic Party, with her being chosen to speak at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last year as a then-first-term member of Congress.

She ran for ranking member of the House Oversight Committee earlier this year following the death of its previous top Democrat, late Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., but dropped out of the race after failing to win the recommendation of leadership within her party.

On the GOP side of the Texas Senate race is a high-profile three-way primary between incumbent Cornyn as well as challengers Paxton and Hunt.