Colin Allred Confirms Jasmine Crockett Pushed Him Out of Texas Senate Race

Former Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) said Monday that he is dropping out of the Texas Senate primary as speculation grows that Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) will announce a run for the seat.

Allred served as the Representative for Texas’s 32nd congressional district from 2019 through January of this year before announcing he was running to unseat Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX). But with speculation that Crockett may pivot to the Senate, Allred said he’s setting his sights on the House once again in the newly redrawn 33rd congressional district.

Allred told CNN’s Dana Bash that he wasn’t interested in going through a “bruising primary” and runoff that’s “not in the best interest of the state or the party.”

Bash asked if the rumors of Crockett’s run was part of his decision to drop out of the Senate race.

“Yeah, of course it is,” Allred said. “Listen, Jasmine’s a friend of mine, and we’ve served together, and I’ve known her since before we were both in elected office.”

Bash asked how the conversation with Crockett went down, “and how you made the decision to let her take the wheel.”

Allred described it as a “professional, friendly conversation.”

He continued:

And you know, what I took from that was that I needed to try and decide what I thought would be best for the state, for the party, in a time and in a year where there is so much at stake… This is not a normal time. And there are so many people who I’ve met who are so afraid. And in Texas, we are bearing the brunt of so many of these of this president’s policies, from the tariffs to the immigration, you know, impacts in so many different communities. And there are so many people who have placed their faith and their trust in me. And part of that comes with the responsibility to try and put them first and see how I can best serve. And I know that I can be a strong voice in Congress. I can go in on day one to stand up to this president, but also to say some hard truths to the democratic party about some of the things that we have to clean up in our house to try and make sure that we’re not seen as too elitist.

Crockett is expected to announce soon whether she’ll run for Senate or to keep her House seat.

Watch the clip above via CNN.