Colin Allred Seeks Distance From Biden To Secure Senate Seat

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred is distancing himself from President Joe Biden after his disastrous presidential debate performance, hoping the event won’t affect his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

After the debate, many questioned Biden’s mental and physical fitness to serve another term due to his age, with even some Democrats saying he should withdraw from the presidential race. 

Some pundits have said this could affect Allred’s bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, and that if the Democrat wants to win, he needs to distance himself even more from the president.

“There are at least a couple data points at this moment in time that are pointing to an underlying sentiment, at least in Texas, among Democrats that a little distance between them and the president is not a problem — and is probably to their advantage,” Joshua Blank, the research director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin told San Antonio Express-News.

From the start of his campaign, Allred has distanced himself from Biden, saying he has failed to secure the border, a top priority for Texans in this election.

“I stood up to Joe Biden on the border and to extremists like Ted Cruz for preferring chaos to real solutions,” Allred said in an ad. He voted to condemn Biden’s response to the increasing numbers of border crossings.

Experts said Allred needs to focus on Cruz and draw the line between him and Biden, as a Senate term is six years, meaning he would outlast the president if elected.

“He knew that he had to separate himself from Biden and outrun Biden in Texas by 6 or 8 points, because Biden was likely to lose by at least that much,” Cal Jillson, a politics professor at Southern Methodist University told Express-News. “If Allred were to outperform enough to be competitive, that would mean an 8- or 9-point better performance than the top of the ticket, and that is a very difficult task.”

A recent poll by the Manhattan Institute showed Cruz leading Allred by just 3 points (45 percent to 42 percent). This may give Allred more hope, as a previous Texas Politics Project poll in June 2024 gave Cruz an 11-point lead over Allred.

Texas democrats are confident that Allred could present a serious challenge to Cruz, who almost lost his seat to Beto O’Rourke last election.

“The greatest advantage that Congressman Allred has is that nobody seems to like Ted Cruz,” said state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, from San Antonio.