Rep. Colin Allred is seemingly lukewarm on Vice President Kamala Harris and appears to be distancing himself from his party’s national ticket.
Allred (D-TX) seemed to only halfheartedly support Harris last week when he appeared on MSNBC.
“Vice President Harris was a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, and I’ve known her for some time, and I support her nomination,” he said before pivoting to how he was focused on Texas and his Senate run this election cycle against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).
His remarks followed some initial hesitation in the immediate aftermath of President Joe Biden’s announcement that he was ending his re-election campaign. In a statement on X, Allred praised Biden for “his service and his willingness to put country before self.”
“… My sincere hope is that this moment brings our nation one step closer to healing, uniting, and fixing our broken politics,” Allred wrote. However, he made no mention of Harris.
A spokesperson for his campaign later clarified that Allred was, in fact, endorsing the vice president, but only after Biden and other Democrats did so, per The Texas Tribune.
His official endorsement came in the form of a clarification his campaign made to reporters after Biden subsequently endorsed Harris and as other Democratic lawmakers put out statements on social media and in news releases.
Cruz’s campaign capitalized on Allred’s attempt to distance himself from the Democratic Party’s national ticket.
“[Is] Can’t Comment Colin hiding from Border Czar Harris?” a Cruz campaign spokesperson told The Texas Tribune. “Allred has had no issue being a rubber stamp for Kamala’s disastrous open border policies for the past three years, but now he won’t even be seen with her and Joe Biden in public. Why the sudden change of heart?”
The Allred campaign did not respond to a request for comment from The Dallas Express.
Allred has remained similarly silent on the murders of Texans by illegal aliens this year, as previously reported by DX. Pro-Cruz campaign ads this year focused on Allred’s previous comments that a border wall is “racist.”
He also refused to answer questions last month about whether he still supported Biden’s campaign after the 81-year-old’s disastrous debate performance against former President Donald Trump. This apparent middle-ground approach contrasts with his voting record in Congress, which aligned 100% with Biden’s policy agenda, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The Democratic congressman trails Cruz in the latest U.S. Senate race polling. A June survey from Remington Research showed Cruz up by 10 percentage points. However, a June poll from the University of Houston showed Cruz’s lead at three percentage points. Cruz leads in every poll conducted on the race against Allred.
On the national front, Harris has cut into Trump’s lead, as the RealClearPolitics aggregate shows the former president up by less than one percentage point.