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Political Note #271 Colin Allred TX CD 32
2020 General Election
In 2018, Collin Allred https://www.colinallred.com/ was elected to represent Texas’s Thirty-second congressional district. North Dallas and north of Dallas. Colin Allred is an African-American who represents a district that is just under two thirds white. Three-quarters of the whites are also Hispanic.
The district is prospering. Per capita income is over $35,000 – fifth highest Congressional District in Texas. Median household income is over $62,000 – sixth highest in Texas. There aren’t as many poor people as elsewhere. Thirteen percent live below the poverty line, 26th highest of the thirty-six Congressional Districts in Texas. Lake Ray Hubbard is the eastern border of the district. It is a reservoir and Dallas’ water source. The big town in the district is Garland with a population approaching 250,000. An industrial town, it has lost some of its industries.
Colin Allred played football in high school at Hillcrest High School in Dallas, in the 32nd District, actually. For college, he didn’t go far. He played for Baylor in Waco about an hour and a half from home. After that, he was a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans in the NFL. Undrafted, he worked his way onto the roster. He is not in the football Hall of Fame. He played four years of professional football, two particularly solid years for the Titans. A game injury ended his football career. He was injured playing against the Dallas Cowboys in Irving, in the neighboring 33rd Congressional District.
Colin Allred had something to fall back on. After college he had been admitted to Boalt Hall, the law school at the University of California, Berkeley — one of the outstanding law schools in the country. Colin Allred was apparently studying while playing football in high school and college.
In 2014, eight years after starting a career as a professional football player, Colin Allred began his career as an attorney as special assistant to Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro (that’s the twin who ran for President). He left the Obama administration to work in Texas for Perkins-Cole, a Seattle-based national law firm heavily involved in political matters.
In 2018, Collin Allred announced that he would run for Congress against Pete Sessions in Texas’ 32nd District. He won the primary by 20 points, but had a plurality. He won the run off with 70% of the vote. Some pundits now say the District was ready for a Democratic victory. After all, Hillary Clinton carried the district by a very slight margin in 2016. It didn’t look ready for a Democratic victory when Colin Allard announced..
In 2016, Pete Sessions had no Democratic opposition at all. He won the three previous elections by 20 points or more. Nevertheless, he was no prize. He got himself involved in the Jack Abramoff scandal, in a scandal for supporting an appropriation for dirigible research, and got a mention in Trump’s Ukraine scandal. He wants to get back into Congress, but knows enough about how District 32 has changed and what it thinks of him. Sessions is running in a district a 100 miles away.
Colin Allred is a success. He will be a success whether he is reelected or not. He would not claim he made himself a success. He was the child of an unmarried white mother and a black father. His father disappeared immediately and died when he was a boy.
A Dallas Morning News article says Colin Allred and his mother got an enormous amount of help from family, from teachers, from people in bookstores, and from the local YMCA. He got so much help that the article described Colin Allred as a son of the district. He said himself “It definitely took a village to raise me. It took a lot of people in my life, people who did more than what their normal range of duties were. They looked out for me.” Except for his Mom, no one was more important to his upbringing than his mom’s sister and brother-in-law. They moved, along with Colin Allred and his mom to north Dallas for better schools.
Colin Allred is married now. To a girl from New Jersey he met in California. They have a baby. He is no longer the target of offensive linemen trying to block him. He is a target of Republicans trying to unseat him. In 2018, he was accused of being a far left candidate. Govtrack rates him among the more conservative Democratic Members of Congress. On the scattergram they create that locates Members of Congress on the political spectrum, his voting record most resembles the records of Conor Lamb and Max Rose – northeastern conservative Democrats.
Colin Allred is on three Congressional Committees – one more than is typical. He is on the transportation committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Veteran’s Committee. Transportation is a crucial issue for his district.
You can usually place a Member of Congress politically, by his or her caucus membership. Colin Allred is a member of the New Democratic Coalition – the large fiscally moderate Democratic caucus. He is also a member of the Black Caucus. Like several of those members, he has endorsed Joe Biden for President.
Colin Allred has avoided controversy. He is a member of a unique two person caucus with Republican Representative Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio. They are the ex NFL football players caucus. Tney use their celebrity among Members of Congress (There are a lot of sports fans in Congress) to help achieve common ground on sports-related issues between the parties. Other issues, too. Even less controversial, he has been an advocate for animal welfare. He received a 100% rating from the Humane Society. No radical leftist here.
He could be vulnerable in 2020. Colin Allred is preparing himself as if he is vulnerable. He has just under $2 million on hand to work to preserve his seat. Five Republicans think he is vulnerable. We won’t know which of them will be Colin Allred’s opponent when the primaries are over. The biggest fundraiser is Genevieve Collins. She has just under $800,000 on hand. Republicans also have the benefit of very well funded PACS. Announcing her run, Collins said: “I cannot stand idly by when people in Congress attack our Texas spirit of common sense business, family values, optimism, entrepreneurism and fierce independence,” She is a Senior Vice President of Istation, an internet learning company of which her father is the CEO.
Colin Allred https://www.colinallred.com/ was a standout linebacker. He knows how to defend his team and himself. Football players do not play defense alone. He needs help – resources and volunteers. Help him defend his seat.
Vulnerable Democratic Members of Congress. Choose a few to support. Check them out. Read my Notes about them in https://lenspoliticalnotes.com
Elected by fewer than 1,000 votes
California 21 TJ Cox
Utah 04 Ben McAdams
Elected by 5,000 votes or fewer
Florida 26 Debbie Mucarsel-Powell
Georgia 06 Lucy McBath
Maine 02 Jared Golden
New Mexico 03 Xochitl Torres Small
New Jersey 03 Andy Kim
New York 22 Anthony Brindisi
Oklahoma 05 Kendra Horn
South Carolina 01 Joe Cunningham
Elected by fewer than 10,000 votes
California 10 Josh Harder
California 39 Gil Cisneros
Iowa 03 Cynthia Axne
Virginia 07 Abigail Spanberger
Elected by 15,000 votes or fewer
Illinois 14 Lauren Underwood
Michigan 08 Elissa Slotkin
Minnesota 07 Collin Peterson
New York 11 Max Rose
New York 19 Anthony Delgado
Texas 07 Lizzie Fletcher
Other close races
Illinois 08 Sean Casten
Texas 32 Colin Allred
Washington 08 Kim Schreier
CORRECTION
In the previous Note, I mentioned living in Niagara County in NY CD 27 where Nate McMurray is the Democrat running for an open, formerly Republican, seat. I mentioned that my wife, Marian Lubinsky, had attended a meeting of the Niagara County legislature to oppose a local version of the Hyde Amendment – preventing the use of taxpayer funds to support abortions. I recalled, erroneously, they had lost the fight. She reminded me. They won by a single vote.
