Congressman Colin Allred recently announced his U.S. Senate campaign against Ted Cruz, raising $2 million in a little over a day.
From more than 34,500 contributions, Allred earned, in 36 hours, well over what Ted Cruz earned over the first three months of this year, while clearing the record of $1.6 million for the first day of Senate campaign fundraising this cycle.
A 4th generation Texan, Allred was born and raised in Dallas by a single mom, a public-school teacher, who he said, sometimes worked two jobs to make ends meet. Thanks to his family and strong support system of teachers, coaches, and the YMCA, he earned a full scholarship to Baylor, and then went on to play in the NFL, he said.
But football was not his only dream. From a young age, he knew he wanted to help people. He was to become a civil rights attorney, defending our most fundamental right: the right to vote.
After serving in the Obama administration, he would run for Congress, beating the odds to defeat an 11-term Republican incumbent and helping Democrats flip the House blue in 2018.
“I ran for Congress because I wanted more kids in North Texas to have the opportunity to achieve their version of the American dream and protect the fundamental values of our democracy,” he said.
“The political extremism that we are becoming increasingly known for is a real risk to our business community and our path forward,” Allred said in a recent Dallas Morning News interview, “It’s making some folks say they don’t want to send their kids to school in our state. We can go in a different direction,” he said.
Allred has received praise from Texans across the state, including his colleagues Congressman Marc Veasey, Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher, and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar.
With CNN recently calling Ted Cruz one of the most vulnerable senators in the country, Allred’s entrance has made the Texas U.S. Senate race highly competitive. This, reflected by the Cook Political Report’s ratings change.
