Allred joins Inside Texas Politics to discuss the race and what distinguishes him from U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson in the U.S. House District 33 runoff.
DALLAS — Former U.S. Representative Colin Allred knows the runoff election will be much different than the primary, when he received 44% of the vote for U.S. House District 33.
Start with the fact that turnout is always lower for a runoff and then multiply that by the fact that the 2026 primary runoff will be held Tuesday, May 26, the day after Memorial Day, so candidates will have to excite voters during and immediately after a major holiday.
Allred expressed confidence because he’s been in this situation before.
“Back in 2018, we had a large primary that I won by double digits as well and that one then had to go to a runoff,” the Democrat told us on Inside Texas Politics. “I think it’s an opportunity to clarify some of the positions and some of the ideas that I have, some of the big ideas that I have for the district and for our area.”
That year, Allred defeated Lillian Salerno 69% – 31% in the Democratic runoff for the 32nd District. The Democrat would go on to upset Republican incumbent Pete Sessions 52% – 46%. Allred left Congress seeking a seat in the U.S. Senate but lost to incumbent Republican Senator Ted Cruz 53% – 45%.
As examples of some previous work, Allred pointed to his role in getting the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Garland, as well as triple digit funding for housing, transportation and some other issues in his previous district.
If he’s elected to the new 33rd congressional district, Allred says he’d continue to focus on transportation issues, as well as healthcare. But he says affordability is top of mind for most constituents.
“Those pinch points of the cost of childcare, of the cost of their healthcare, of the cost of housing and being able to own a house, those are areas that I know we can help with and that I want to make sure that we have concrete ideas, that we know that folks can say I can take this to the bank, we can make this happen,” the candidate said.
Allred offered us no concrete ideas, though, about how to begin tackling those issues.
He’ll be taking on U.S. Representative Julie Johnson in the runoff after she secured 33% of the vote in the primary. The Congresswoman currently represents the 32nd District having replaced Allred, but she decided to run in the 33rd after redistricting.
We talked to both of the candidates about the war in Iran, a conflict that could play a role in elections in the United States for the foreseeable future.
Allred describes the process of the Trump Administration’s pursuit of the war “outrageous, un-American, and unconstitutional.”
“There’s a reason why we have these discussions in our democracy, why we come to Congress for congressional authorization for the use of military force, why even President Bush did that before going into Iraq, which I disagreed with and think was a foreign policy mistake, clearly, but that discussion was still had,” Allred argued. “And there was no discussion here, or no laying out of the goals and the plans and the reasons for why we’re going to war with a country with 90 million people that’s the size of western Europe and that cannot be won by just airstrikes.”
The runoff will be held May 26. Early voting runs from May 18 –22. April 27 will be the last day to register to vote for the runoff.
There is also a runoff in the Republican race for U.S. House District 33. Patrick Gillespie (36%) and John Sims (22%) will square off after receiving less than 50% of the vote in the primary.