Bulwark Takes - Colin Allred: Republicans Lied—Now You’re Paying More

Episode Date: August 9, 2025

Colin Allred joins Lauren Egan to talk about the Texas redistricting fight, his 2026 Senate campaign with potential rivals Beto O'Rourke and James Talarico with lessons from his race against Ted Cruz, and why Democrats can win over working-class voters with authenticity.

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey, guys, it's Lauren Egan here at the Bullwork, and I'm joined today by Colin Allred. He is a former member of Congress from Texas, and he ran for Senate last year against Ted Cruz, and he is running for Senate again, this time for John Cornyn's seat. And he's also a former linebacker for the Tennessee Titans.

Thank you for being here. Thanks, Lauren. I appreciate it. Yeah, yeah. So I want to start off with this redistricting shit show that's happening in Texas right now. And I would I just want to get your like really honest like candid assessment of where things go from here because from my perspective, you know, Democrats have obviously fled the state. They're trying to deny a quorum. This is a tactic that they've used in the past. And understandably people always crack. Like it's really hard to sort of make this work long term. So for my for my view, like I don't know how this ends. It just seems really hard. There's only so many tools that Democrats have. So give me your honest assessment. of like where this is headed and is it just ultimately probably going to end and new maps being drawn? Well, maybe. And just to give you a little background from me, before I was in Congress, after I played in the NFL, I was a voting rights lawyer. And I dealt with issues like this.

And so I say maybe because no matter what happens at the legislative level, this is going to be challenged in court. And the one safe harbor that we do still have, in voting rights law when it comes to redistricting is that you cannot do racial gerrymanders. And this is, in my opinion, and I'm a little bit of an expert, this is a clear-cut racial gerrymander that will discriminate against black and brown voters in Texas. The districts they're targeting are all majority minority. Many of the actual members of Congress that they're targeting are minorities themselves. And they have been so blatant and open.

and what they're saying they want to do, that in many ways, the court case is building itself. Now, that that still relies on for us in Texas that we have to deal with a Fifth Circuit that's incredibly hostile to voting and then a Supreme Court that's shown itself to be hostile to voting. But you're asking where you think this is going to go. And my mind, as a voting rights lawyer, I know this will go to the courts, but then on the ground, what I'm seeing is that the backlash is building. And then when you create more competitive districts, be careful and watch out what you wish for. Do you think that backlash could be enough to stop Republicans from going through at this?

Because, I mean, it just seems like, you know, this is what Donald Trump wants and that's what they're probably going to do. So how are you kind of thinking about the impact of that backlash? Yeah. Well, I testified in Austin to these legislators and was looking at them and telling them, you know, you don't have to do this. Like, it's basically a very Texan trait that we would tell the White House, you know, to go fly a kite. But I think it's likely that they will do it. The backlash that I'm thinking of is also the backlash to the day after and saying that we know what you're doing, that this is so blatant that folks are fired up. They're angry.

I was in a black church in Fort Worth a couple of days ago on the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. It was packed house with folks just incredibly upset about what's going on, knowing that their congressional district in Fort Worth is being dismantled a couple days before that. I was in Missouri City in Fort Bend County where they're also under attack, a huge group of folks there fired up, upset about what's happening. People are paying attention. People are organizing and the backlash is building. I want to talk a little bit about your Senate race from 24. You lost to Ted Cruz by about eight points. And I'm curiously just what your assessment is of that race. And you know, you're running again. So what is something that you feel like you could do differently this time that you maybe didn't do last time around? Yeah, I mean, you know,

let's just look at it and say the last election ended up going pretty negatively in a lot of places around the country. And we outran our presidential ticket by over five points. And, you know, that's something that in the previous election in 2020, when Joe Biden lost by five points, then that would have been a very close race. And here, you know, just the election went the other way. And so we have to recognize that. I think what we have to do is learn the lessons from it. And that in many ways, this was about working people in an economy that they couldn't afford, feeling like they're looking for somebody who was on their side. And that's my story. I was raised by a single mother who's a public school teacher, never met my father, relied on the

same public schools that they're often underfunding here in Texas on the YMCA. I know what it means for working people who are sitting there thinking, well, maybe somebody's going to help lower our costs. But the truth is, they relied to. And that makes me angry, especially as somebody who has been through this specifically, where my mom and I've gone to the grocery store, swiped her debit card, and couldn't afford what we needed that. We had to put some things back. They have done nothing but raise costs on working people, also they can, you know, cut taxes for the rich. And so we have to make sure folks know that and know what's going on. And a lot has changed in the last eight months. I mean, I know you feel that. We all feel that. But this is also something where

this is going to be about the promises that they made that were not kept, but also just the unbelievable overreach that they have engaged in. And what I'm looking forward to most in this campaign is spending time and showing not telling working people that we care about them, that I know what we can do together to address what their biggest concerns are, that I've had those concerns myself, I know how to do it, that we have a rigged system that we can fix together. I know you're facing a primary first, but do you view the big beautiful bill and like these Medicaid cuts and all of that as kind of like the message that you and other Democrats should be running on in 2026? Or what do you kind of think should be the overarching thing that the

party's communicating to voters? I think it's a big part of it. I mean, you know, when I ran in 2018 for Congress, that was a year when they had gone after. the Affordable Care Act and health care. And my opponent was somebody who in a gerrymandered Republican District had voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, something like 56 times or something. And by the end of it, he was saying, by the end of the campaign, he was saying that he was for the Affordable Care Act, you know, I think this is going to be a meat and potatoes election. And as much as threats democracy, you know, make me just stay up at night as a voting rights lawyer, as much as some of the constitutional overreach that I know is going to have long-reaching

impacts concerns me. To me, this is going to be about, you know, folks when they sit down at their kitchen table at night and they're thinking, you know, what are we going to do if grandma get sick, how are we going to replace that car that we know needs to be replaced? How are we going to send our kid to a good school? It's going to be about the economy, about health care, and about how they're making all those things harder when they said that they were going to be on their side. And that, to me, the bill is a part of it. It's a big part of it. It's a legislative, you know, kind of package where you can point to things like saying, hey, this is going to raise your electric bills, $800 a year because of what they did under renewable energy.

But it's part of an overall picture that also includes tariffs, it also includes tax cuts for the rich, it also includes the incredible corruption that we're seeing. I think it's all part of that. You mentioned that you outperformed Harris in Texas in 2024. And I'm curious why you think that is. And if there were specific positions that you took that were different from her that can help us sort of understand that gap. Well, I mean, I think every race is different, of course. And, you know, listen, I'm, my family's from the valley. They're from the border, Brownsville, Texas, which is the very tip of Texas.

My grandfather was a customs officer there. You know, I know that, and I was saying for some time that, you know, we had to do something about the sense of chaos that particularly border communities were feeling. Because if you're feeling in other parts of the country, just imagine what they're feeling, at the border. And so I think that's part of why we did so well in South Texas in comparison. I think the biggest thing is that what we have to do in this election, and I do think looking back is important, what I think we have to do in this election is understand that for working people coming out of COVID, they were the ones who were going into work every single day.

They weren't doing remote work. They were the ones in many cases who, when we talked about, you know, that a million Americans died. Well, who was that amongst, right? They were the ones who, when schools were closed, they didn't have child care, right? And that they came out of that. And that even everything that we tried to do to try and make sure that our economy got back going, that they were working harder for less.

And they were told in the last election that they were going to go right back to a great economy, that there's going to be a laser focus on them. And they were just flat out lied to. And I understand working people thinking that maybe that's something that I can believe in. But we have to make sure they know that they were just flat out lied to and that it's not just my opinion. Like to your point with that bill, that's a great example of it, but it's also this tariff policy is going to make this an incredibly expensive Christmas. I know what that means for these working families. And so, yes, the last election is important, but in some ways we've

got to move on from it and say, what's happening right now is that it's harder for working people to get ahead. The American dream is slipping away. And at the same time, we're seeing an unprecedented level of corruption that's going to the wealthy and the well connected. And that is a story that we can tell to working folks and that I'm looking forward to doing, but I think we should do it around the country as well. You know, you mentioned the border stuff. And the Democratic Party thing is having a bit of a conversation right now about whether the, on the national level, like, do they need to moderate on some things or like create a bigger tent so that you can have people with different views on guns, border, abortion, like whatever it might be, especially if you

want a real shot at winning in a red state like Texas. I'm curious how you think about that and like your theory of the case of, you know, what is needed to win statewide in Texas? Because Democrats have been talking about winning their statewide for years. And it hasn't happened. Yeah. Well, I've won tough races. You know, the district that I ran in in 2018 was drawn for Republican. It was gerrymandered for him. He'd been there for 22 years. He'd been unopposed in the previous selection. And we beat him pretty significantly. And when you do that, you then become the top target in the next election. And they couldn't get rid of me, so they gerrymandered the district. And I mentioned that to just say that to me, this discussion is a little bit silly. The idea that

we're not going to take, bring everybody in, the idea that what we really need to do is just become more pure. And that if I'm a black civil rights lawyer, okay, I could spend a lot of time talking about what I think these tests could be. But that's not how we're going to help anybody, right? In order to help folks, we have to bring more people into our coalition, including friends of mine like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinsinger, but also talk about real life. And, you know, listen, I grew up around guns. I grew up going to a camp where we were shooting rifles when I was seven years old. Like, let's talk about it. Let's talk about who we really are. Let's stop seeding all this ground culturally to Republicans before we could even get into the policy issues.

And so I am not a fan of folks who think that what we really need to do is just become incredibly ideological. I think that doesn't make any sense at all. But what I do think that I've seen that sometimes folks can confuse with ideology is that if you talk about what people care about, if you show them that you care, that then they will be responsive to that. That's not just about like saying, you know, one policy or another. I do think if they have policies that respond to that. But that's more about, you know, how you're saying things and who you're talking to. Yeah. And, you know, when we talk about like making the tent bigger, a difference in your Senate campaign experiences is you're probably going to have a more competitive primary this time around.

I know we're really early in the cycle. But Beto O'Rourke is thinking about running, James Tellerico. So how do you think about, like, navigating. making that tent bigger, but also, like, you have to get through a primary phase as well this time. Yeah. Well, I've always had primaries. Every time I've run and when I ran in 2018 and flipped that seat, I had a seven-person primary and then a runoff, had a primary last time when I ran for Senate. And so you're right. There's different levels and competitors. But I think you have to be confident enough in yourself and in what you believe that your message is not that different, regardless of whether you're running in a primary or a general election.

And that's been my approach, you know, in every election that I've had, which is that I'm not going to, you know, try and just, you know, swing from one way or another. Because the whole thing I'm trying to tell folks is that I really believe what I'm saying, you know, that this is not just for the expediency thing that we've been like to be talking about for forever. Yeah. It's not the expediency of the moment, right? Like, and how can you, how can you have anyone believe you if you're just going to change it depending on which election and which electorate you're in front of, right? But I also think that there is a fundamental, uh, There's a fundamental decency, but also what most voters, even in a primary, want, is fairly modest, right? What we're talking about here is oftentimes black and brown working people who don't believe that government is going to do everything for them and don't and aren't asking for that, right? What they're asking for is a shot and a chance and an opportunity and to not be discriminated against and to have certain ladders of opportunity in place. so that their kids can get ahead.

That's what they're asking for, right? And so I think in election after election, we've seen this play out where it's not just about the identity of who's running, but who you're talking to. And if you think that you're talking to, you know, an electorate that's online and that's incredibly well-informed, I'm sorry, but that's just not going to be it, right? It's going to be working folks who have a lot going on in their lives

and you need to show, not tell that you care about them. How has your view of social media and how important that is in the job of being a politician changed over the course of your time in politics? Because I mentioned James Tolerico. He's obviously gotten a bunch of attention for his TikTok videos. And, you know, you've run a few races in the past few years. Like, has that role of social media just changed and how you kind of approach the job? I'm laughing because I've seen those gym videos. So, you know. Well, I'm laughing because when I was in the NFL, uh, Our head coach at the time, Jeff Fisher, somebody posted something before a game. He was like, get off the social medias.

And I did. And so, like, I was like, okay, you know. And so I didn't. You're probably healthier for it. Yeah. And so I'm not like somebody who is dragged around by it. What I try and use it for is just as a tool to hopefully give folks some insight into what I'm thinking. In this campaign in particular, I want to do more of kind of just like,

okay, what am I thinking right then and just say it? And I'm not, I don't, I am firmly of the belief, though, that you can overestimate the power of social media and you can underestimate it, right? And that we used to say in the NFL after a game, it's never as good as you think it is, it never as bad as you think it is, because the tape is going to be, is going to be somewhere in the middle. And I think that's kind of how I see this, which is like, yes, it's incredibly important to try and, you know, deliver what you want to deliver, because that's your,

megaphone, that's your channel, right? But I also think that, you know, many of the people who we're ultimately going to be communicating with are not on social media. Like, my mom is not on social media and she's going to be voting in all these elections. Most working people don't have time to spend a whole lot of time on social media, even if they are on there, right? Because they're working two, three jobs taking care of their kids, trying to keep a roof over the kid's head and put food on the table. By the time they get to bedtime, they're wiped out. Right. And so I think we have to understand that and recognize that in the last election nationally, we lost folks who earned less than $50,000 a year. And that that is a huge problem for the Democratic Party. And that that's not going to be fixed online, right?

That is not going to be fixed through, you know, smooth video editing or anything like that. That has to be fixed through, you know, authentic candidates telling their actual life experiences. As a young GZ line, I think about where some, he says, some rappers just write, I recollect. Yeah, I don't, I'm not having to write down what working people are going through. I remember what they are going through. And I think that's what we have to do is use that authenticity to reach people where they are. Yes, online, some, but oftentimes in their communities. All right, Colin Allred, let's leave it there. Thank you so much for being here.

And, you know, we got a long way to go till, until 2026. So please come back. All right. Sounds good. I appreciate you.