In a fiery speech Thursday night in Houston’s Fifth Ward, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Colin Allred criticized the state's response to the deadly floods in the Texas Hill Country and condemned Gov. Greg Abbott's call for mid-decade redistricting.
Allred was one of several Democratic politicians to speak at a rally organized by Blue Texas Majority, a political action committee attempting to "permanently flip Texas blue" by supporting Democratic candidates and causes, according to itswebsite.
Allred opened his speech by calling for prayer for the victims of theGuadalupe River floodingon July 4, which as of Thursday had killed more than 100 people, with more than 100 still considered missing.
"We have to have redundant systems to warn people, overlapping systems to warn people," Allred said. "We have to fill key positions that are responsible for warning people. You don't know what you need from government until it's not there."
The former congressman from Dallas also criticized Abbott's decision to include redistricting as an agenda item for the upcomingspecial legislative session. Among the congressional districts targeted is Houston’s vacant 18th Congressional District, which has been represented for more than 50 years by a succession of Black Democrats — most recently the late U.S. Rep. Sylvester Turner.
"They're gonna have a special session just to see if they can squeeze out a little bit more juice, cut off a few more communities from representation,” Allred said, referring to Republican state lawmakers. “That's what gerrymandering is. It has broken the House of Representatives. It has led to us having more extreme people in office who are accountable to less people ... and they want to increase that dysfunction."
Allred previously ran for the Senate in 2024 against incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred lost by nearly 9 percentage points.
Allred is one of two Democrats to have announced their runs for the Senate seat occupied by U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican who has drawn a primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Former NASA astronaut Terry Virts also has announced his candidacy for the 2026 Democratic primary in March.
It’s been speculated that Texas politicians such as U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, state Rep. James Talarico and former Congressman Beto O'Rourke — who lost elections against Cruz in 2018 and Abbott in 2022 — could also throw their hats in the ring for the Democratic primary. O’Rourke has held two town hall meetings in the Houston area in recent months.
Acting Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee and state Rep. Jolanda Jones, Democrats who are running in the November special election for the congressional seat vacated by Turner, also attended Thursday’s rally.
Still wearing his truck driving attire — consisting of mud boots and a T-shirt — Houston ISD elected trustee Savant Moore said he had just gotten off work to come and speak about the importance of upcoming elections. Moore, who has no voting power on the HISD board because of ongoing state intervention, is running for Texas House District 142.
"Why is it important to volunteer?" Moore said, speaking to the nearly full gym at the Julia C. Hester House community center. "[Because] faith without works is dead. I got all the faith in the world, but in order to make my school board better, I had to show up. And in order to make my state better, now I gotta run for office.
"I wish I could just be with my wife and my kids, and nobody knows my name, but I didn’t see anybody else stepping up,” he added. “Just like you didn’t see anyone else stepping up, so you in this room right now, continue to do it. Because we will empower our city, our state."
After waiting in line to take her photo with Allred, rally attendee Viola Hebert said she is ready to back the candidate again, despite the possibility of other candidates jumping into the race. Hebert is a member of the Texas Silver-Haired Legislature, a non-partisan, representative body of citizens 60 years and older.
"We have to get mean and gritty sometimes in our fighting back, and I think that has been shown to us," Hebert said. "Not that we have to go all the way to that low level, but we really do have to fight back with a different zest and a different energy."
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