Dallas, Texas - Texas Democrat Colin Allred, who last year challenged Ted Cruz for his Senate seat, has now launched a bid to unseat Republican John Cornyn in 2026.
Colin Allred speaks to the media at a campaign event on October 3, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas, during his unsuccessful bid to unseat Senator Ted Cruz. © Brandon Bell / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
"Texans are working harder than ever, not getting as much time with their kids, missing those special moments, all to be able to afford less. 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," Allred, a former congressman and NFL linebacker, says in an announcement video on social media.
"I know Washington is broken. The system is rigged. But it doesn't have to be this way," he adds.
Allred (42) unsuccessfully challenged Cruz in 2024, losing the election by 8.6 percentage points.
The Dallas native made abortion rights central to his campaign after the Supreme Court overturned constitutional protectionsin 2022. Billing himself as a moderate, he repeatedly affirmed his support for Israel amid widespread public outrage over continued US funding of the atrocities in Palestine, though he voted against a bill to sanction the International Criminal Courtover its pursuit of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders last June.
Cornyn (73) is running for a fifth term in the Senate. He faces a primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Paxton (62).
"Well, they're both friends of mine," President Donald Trump told reporters in April. "They're both good men and I don't know. We don't, we don't know who else is running, but these two, you know, Ken and John, they're both friends of mine, so I'll make a determination at the right time."
On the Democratic side, former astronaut and International Space Station commander Terry Virts (57) has also announced a run for the Senate seat currently held by Cornyn.
