Colin Allred

Colin Zachary Allred (born April 15, 1983) is an American politician, lawyer, and former professional football player. A member of the Democratic Party, he is currently serving as the U.S. Representative from Texas's 32nd congressional district. The district includes the northeastern corner of Dallas, as well as many of its northeastern suburbs including Garland, Richardson, Sachse, Wylie, the Park Cities, and Rowlett.

Colin Allred
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 32nd district
Assumed office
January 3, 2019
Preceded byPete Sessions
Personal details
Born
Colin Zachary Allred

(1983-04-15) April 15, 1983
Dallas, Texas, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
Alexandra Eber
​
(m. 2017)​
Children1
EducationBaylor University (BA)
University of California, Berkeley (JD)
WebsiteHouse website
Football career
No. 56
Position:Linebacker
Personal information
Height:6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Weight:238 lb (108 kg)
Career information
High school:Hillcrest (Dallas, Texas)
College:Baylor
Undrafted:2006
Career history
Career NFL statistics
Tackles:41
Sacks:0.0
INTs:0
Player stats at NFL.com

Allred is a lawyer and former linebacker who played for the Tennessee Titans of the National Football League (NFL). Allred left football to pursue a degree in law, receiving his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, followed by positions in both the Obama administration[1] and the U.S. Attorney's office.[2]

Football career

Allred attended Hillcrest High School in Dallas where he played baseball, basketball and football. He accepted a scholarship to play college football at Baylor University.[3] He played for the Baylor Bears as a linebacker. In December 2005, Allred graduated from Baylor with a B.A. in history.[4][5] As a senior, he was All-Big 12 honorable mention.[6]

Allred (#56) on a defensive play during Tennessee Titans training camp in 2008

Allred was signed by the Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent following the 2006 NFL Draft on May 4, 2006. He was waived on August 29 but was re-signed on January 26, 2007. Next, Allred was waived on September 1 during final cuts, and was subsequently signed to the practice squad on September 2. He was promoted to the active roster on December 15 and was re-signed on February 17, 2010.

Law career

Following his football career, Allred enrolled in law school. After graduating from the UC Berkeley School of Law in 2014,[5] Allred worked as a special assistant in the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of General Counsel alongside then-Secretary Julian Castro in the administration of President Barack Obama.[7]

Subsequently, Allred worked as an attorney at the Perkins Coie law firm, where he was a voting rights litigator and counsel to clients including national and state political candidates and advocacy organizations.[7][8]

Politico described him as a "civil rights attorney."[9]

U.S. House of Representatives

On April 21, 2017, Allred announced his campaign to challenge incumbent Republican Pete Sessions in 2018.[10] In a crowded Democratic primary which included two other Obama-administration alums, Allred finished first, by 20 points, but did not get 50 percent of the vote.[11] In the May 22 runoff election, Allred defeated Lewisville businesswoman Lillian Salerno, receiving 69.5% of the vote.[12]

Allred faced long-time incumbent Sessions for the 32nd district seat. As of the November 2016 election, this was considered a swing district because Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received marginally more votes than Donald Trump even as Sessions was reelected with no major-party opposition.[13] Allred has described himself as a moderate Democrat.[9]

On November 6, 2018, Allred was elected to the United States House of Representatives for the 32nd district of Texas.[14] Allred's victory was considered an upset because Sessions had been in Congress since 1997 and had represented the 32nd district since its creation in 2003.[15] He became the second person to represent this district since it was created in 2003, and the first Democrat. Sessions had represented the neighboring 5th district, and transferred to the 32nd after the 5th was seemingly made less Republican in redistricting. As a measure of how Republican this area had been, much of what is now the 32nd had not been represented by a Democrat since 1968, when it was part of the neighboring 3rd district. He was one of two former NFL players to win a seat in Congress that year, the other being Republican Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.

In February 2019, Allred endorsed his former boss and fellow Texan, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, for the Democratic nomination in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries.[16] Following Castro's withdrawal from the race, Allred endorsed Joe Biden.[17] Allred was selected as one of seventeen speakers to jointly deliver the keynote address at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.[18]

Tenure

Allred was elected in November 2018 as co-president of the 116th Congressional Freshman Class, alongside fellow Obama administration alumna Haley Stevens of Michigan.[19]

On December 18, 2019, Allred voted for both articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump.[20]

Committee assignments

Caucus memberships

Electoral history
Democratic primary results, 2018[21]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Colin Allred 15,442 38.5
Democratic Lillian Salerno 7,343 18.3
Democratic Brett Shipp 6,550 16.4
Democratic Ed Meier 5,474 13.7
Democratic George Rodriguez 3,029 7.5
Democratic Ron Marshall 1,301 3.2
Democratic Todd Maternowski 945 2.4
Total votes 40,084 100.0
Democratic primary runoff results, 2018
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Colin Allred 15,658 69.5
Democratic Lillian Salerno 6,874 30.5
Total votes 22,532 100
Texas's 32nd congressional district, 2018[22]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Colin Allred 144,067 52.3
Republican Pete Sessions (incumbent) 126,101 45.7
Libertarian Melina Baker 5,452 2.0
Total votes 275,620 100.0
Democratic gain from Republican
Texas's 32nd congressional district, 2020[23]
Party Candidate Votes %
Democratic Colin Allred (incumbent) 178,542 52.0
Republican Genevieve Collins 157,867 45.9
Libertarian Christy Mowrey Peterson 4,946 1.4
Independent Jason Sigmon 2,332 0.7
Total votes 343,687 100.0
Democratic hold

Personal life

Allred was born in Dallas, Texas. His father is black and his mother is white.[2] He married Alexandra Eber on March 25, 2017.[24] They have a son who was born in 2019.[25]

See also

References
  1. "Full list of White House summer interns for 2013". The Washington Post. July 12, 2013. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  2. Jeffers, Gromer Jr. (October 21, 2018). "Colin Allred is a son of his Dallas district. Can he unseat the man who's represented it for decades?". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  3. Gonzales, Nathan L. (June 21, 2019). "For Colin Allred, Major League dreams are close to coming true". Roll Call. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  4. "Colin Allred". Tennessee Titans. Archived from the original on January 6, 2011. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
  5. "Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress - Retro Member details". bioguideretro.congress.gov.
  6. "2005 SBC All-Big 12 Conference Football Awards Announced". Big 12. November 29, 2005. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  7. Chung, Renwei (February 9, 2018). "Berkeley Law Alum And Former NFL Player Colin Allred On Following Obama, The American Dream, And His Path Back To Dallas". Above the Law.
  8. "2015 Perkins Coie Diversity Year In Review". Perkins Coie. January 29, 2017.
  9. Caygle, Heather (November 24, 2018). "It's not just Ocasio-Cortez: Here are 7 freshman Democrats to watch". Politico. Retrieved December 9, 2018.
  10. Jeffers Jr., Gromer (April 19, 2017). "Former NFL player Colin Allred launches campaign to unseat Pete Sessions". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  11. Jeffers Jr., Gromer (May 22, 2018). "Colin Allred beats Lillian Salerno for chance to unseat incumbent Republican Pete Sessions | 2018 Elections". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  12. "Texas Primary Runoff Election Results". The New York Times. May 29, 2018. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  13. Livingston, Abby (May 22, 2018). "Texas congressional Democratic runoff results: Lizzie Pannill Fletcher and Gina Ortiz Jones win". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved May 24, 2018.
  14. Schwartz, Brian (November 6, 2018). "Democrat and ex-NFL player Colin Allred projected to beat longtime GOP Rep. Pete Sessions in Texas". CNBC. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  15. Evans, Molly (November 7, 2018). "Texas Midterm Election Results: Abbott, Cruz Win Re-Election; Allred Beats Sessions". KERA-TV. Retrieved November 7, 2018.
  16. Montellaro, Zach (February 20, 2019). "Sanders sprints out of the gate in his presidential bid". Politico. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
  17. Klar, Rebecca (January 13, 2020). "Tenth Congressional Black Caucus member backs Biden". The Hill. Retrieved January 13, 2020.
  18. "Democrats Unveil A New Kind of Convention Keynote". 2020 Democratic National Convention. August 16, 2020. Retrieved August 16, 2020.
  19. Gillman, Todd J. (November 28, 2018). "Colin Allred elected freshman class co-president by new Democrats in Congress". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
  20. Panetta, Grace. "WHIP COUNT: Here's which members of the House voted for and against impeaching Trump". Business Insider.
  21. "2018 Primary Election Official Results". Texas Secretary of State. Archived from the original on March 7, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  22. "Texas Election Results". Texas Secretary of State. Retrieved December 5, 2018.
  23. "Texas Election Results - Official Results". Texas Secretary of State. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
  24. "Colin Allred & Alexandra Eber Engagement Announcement". The Dallas Morning News. April 30, 2017. Archived from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2018.
  25. Garcia, Eric (February 13, 2019). "Colin Allred welcomes new child". The Hill. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by
Pete Sessions		 Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Texas's 32nd congressional district
2019–present		 Incumbent
Party political offices
Preceded by
Elizabeth Warren		 Keynote Speaker of the Democratic National Convention
2020
Served alongside: Stacey Abrams, Raumesh Akbari, Brendan Boyle, Yvanna Cancela, Kathleen Clyde, Nikki Fried, Robert Garcia, Malcolm Kenyatta, Marlon Kimpson, Conor Lamb, Mari Manoogian, Victoria Neave, Jonathan Nez, Sam Park, Denny Ruprecht, Randall Woodfin		 Most recent
U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial)
Preceded by
Steven Horsford		 United States Representatives by seniority
301st		 Succeeded by
Kelly Armstrong
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