Democrat drops out of Texas Senate race as Jasmine Crockett rumors swirl

Former House Rep. Colin Allred, Democrat of Texas, is withdrawing from the Lone Star State’s Senate race, he announced Monday.

Allred’s announcement comes as rumors swirl that progressive Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, could enter the fray as early as Monday afternoon.

“I have come to believe that a Democratic Senate primary runoff would prevent the Democratic Party from going into this critical election united 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 I’ve made the difficult decision to end my campaign for U.S. Senate.”

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Former House Rep. Colin Allred announced he will drop his Senate bid in Texas as rumors swirl that Rep. Jasmine Crockett will enter the race. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

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

It’s not yet clear where Veasey will run for office in 2026, but Allred is already expected to face a primary against current Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas. Johnson is changing districts to operate in the newly redrawn 33rd, which now includes more of Dallas County while removing areas from neighboring Tarrant County.

“The 33rd District was racially truncated by Trump in an attempt to further rig our democracy, but it is also the community I grew up in attending public schools and watching my mother 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 additional right-leaning House districts in the Lone Star State.

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

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Texas has become a hot spot for debate over partisan gerrymandering. (Getty Images)

As the Democratic candidate for Texas Senate in 2024, Allred aimed to unseat firebrand Republican Party Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. But Allred ended up losing eight points to Cruz in last year’s election, in a Senate race that was one of the most expensive in the country.

Allred launched a second consecutive Senate bid in July.

But Allred didn’t have the Democratic field to himself for long. James Talarico, a Democratic Texas lawmaker with a burgeoning national profile, entered the Lone Star State’s high-profile Senate race in September.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Morning News first reported Sunday night that Crockett would launch a Senate bid after facing his own difficult House race decisions following the GOP redrawing of Texas’ congressional map.

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

Crockett is currently serving his second term as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and has already made a name for himself as a staunch progressive, both on social media and during House Oversight Committee hearings.

Texas State Representative James Talarico launches Democratic campaign for U.S. Senate, September 9, 2025. (James Talarico Senate Campaign)

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

But her bombastic style also made Crockett a superstar within the Democratic Party, as she was chosen to speak at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) last year as a first-term congresswoman.

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

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