WASHINGTON — As he campaigned for the Senate in 2024, then-U.S. Rep. Colin Allred sought to appeal to a wide range of voters, many of whom were dissatisfied with the Biden administration’s border policies.
He ran an ad standing side by side with law enforcement that touted him as “tough” and “standing up to extremists in both parties.” He broke from Democrats on multiple immigration bills, including the Laken Riley Act, which required no-bond detention for undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes, including lower-level offenses like shoplifting.
Two years later, Allred is running for Congress again, but this time in a solidly blue, Dallas-centered seat. He’s now calling to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement and denouncing for-profit immigration enforcement — positions that prompted his primary runoff opponent, Rep. Julie Johnson, to label him a “flip-flopper.”
Allred’s changed campaign focus is emblematic of a broader shift among Democrats in a vastly different political climate under President Donald Trump. His administration’s immigration raids and mass deportations have sparked outrage among many Democrats who spent the Biden era playing defense on immigration.
As Allred and Johnson head to the May 26 runoff election, both have targeted immigration policies in their ads.
“What Colin Allred did is abdicate all of his Democratic values because he thought it was politically convenient for him,” Johnson told The Texas Tribune. “I've been a consistent opponent of ICE my entire time in Congress. I've never wavered.”
Allred said his response to immigration has been consistent, citing the policy differences in the presidential administrations as one explanation for his record.
“I’ve always thought Democrats need to put forward what they’re for and what they’re against,” he said. “I'd like to hear what Julie Johnson's plan is, as opposed to just what she thinks the mistakes are in the past.”
Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said Allred’s votes while running for Senate reflect an appeal to a solidly GOP statewide electorate.
Jillson added that when the Biden administration lost control of the border, Allred’s actions were designed to send a message that he still believed in border security and disapproved of how the White House was handling the issue.
“[Allred] took a number of positions that were designed to say, essentially, I see the problem, and I am not an open-borders Democrat,” Jillson said. “Texas is still a middle-right state, and so you have to acknowledge that if you're going to be a successful Democrat [statewide].”
Allred is now running in the 33rd Congressional District, a seat that is so heavily Democratic that, had it existed in 2024, it would have gone to Kamala Harris by nearly 33 points.
Allred finished first in the March primary with 44% of the vote, about 11 points ahead of Johnson. The victor in the Democratic runoff will face the winner of the Republican runoff between Patrick Gillespie and John Sims in November.
ICE is a campaign flashpoint
Allred defended his voting record, saying his family is from the Rio Grande Valley, an area where he outperformed Harris by about 10 points in 2024, and he knew the frustrations residents had with Biden-era border policies while he was running for Senate.
“I would never vote to give this administration that power,” he said in an interview. “I don't think this administration has earned the right to have anything but constraints put on them.”
Allred pointed to Johnson’s previous investments in Palantir, a company that has been key to the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. In February, he ran a TV ad alleging Johnson made thousands from trading Palantir stock. Johnson, once a prolific stock trader, sold her shares after joining Congress and has told reporters she made $90 from the transactions. She has also said the stocks were managed through independent third parties.
In the same ad, Allred promised to “stop ICE, end the mass raids and make sure every ICE agent who breaks the law is prosecuted.”
The former congressman acknowledged that Texans don’t want to return to a time when the country was unable to handle a surge of migrants, but that if ICE were abolished, its responsibilities could be shared among other federal agencies like the FBI, Drug Enforcement Agency and Customs and Border Protection.
“ICE has to go. I think we should get rid of ICE, abolish ICE, whatever you want to call it,” Allred said. “But I still think that we're going to have to have immigration enforcement in this country. It just has to be done consistent with our values.”
Johnson called to defund ICE and said the U.S. needs comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform, an elusive goal for more than three decades.
The congresswoman said she used her position on the House Homeland Security Committee to press former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to follow the Constitution in deportation efforts. She’s also called for transparency about the Dallas Police Department’s cooperation with ICE.
“Part of what you're seeing is a government and administration ignoring the rule of law, ignoring constitutional rights and protections, being rogue and abusive and really doing terrible things,” Johnson said.
A shift from Biden
Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico consistently broke records during Biden’s term, peaking with almost 250,000 in December 2023. Polls in early 2024 showed immigration was a top issue for Texas voters who overwhelmingly disapproved of Biden’s approach.
In January 2024, Allred was among 14 Democrats, including three from Texas, to vote in favor of a bill condemning Biden’s border policy — an action he highlighted in a 2024 Senate campaign ad.
He said most Texans at the time agreed the administration was not being aggressive or quick enough to respond to the surge in border crossings, and he wanted to send a message that the Biden administration’s actions were unacceptable.
“You can see that the resources in South Texas and along the Valley were being diverted to deal with this enormous increase in crossings and in migrants, but there was no subsequent federal response,” he said.
Johnson has attacked Allred’s support for immigration-related bills, including one targeting funding for cities and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and another that would penalize migrants who flee pursuing federal agents while driving.
Matthew Wilson, an associate professor of political science at Southern Methodist University, said a high-profile Senate race between James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett boosted turnout in the March Democratic primary. Turnout traditionally falls sharply in runoffs, which means Allred can’t depend on his primary lead, he said.
As Democrats eye picking up a House majority in the fall, Wilson added, the composition and unity of the caucus could shape how aggressively the party pushes back on the Trump administration's immigration agenda and the approach they take to working with House Republicans, which would be necessary for the bipartisan immigration reform both Allred and Johnson advocate.
“Democrats essentially have their pick … electability really isn't a central concern in this runoff,” Wilson said.
Disclosure: Southern Methodist University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
