A dramatic redistricting shake-up in Texas is setting off one of the most consequential Democratic primaries of the 2026 cycle, as former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred moves to challenge current U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson, the first out LGBTQ+ person ever elected to Congress from Texas, in a newly drawn North Texas House district, just as U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett launches her U.S. Senate campaign.
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Johnson, a former state lawmaker who replaced Allred in Congress after he gave up his seat to run for Senate in 2024, now finds herself forced into a defensive fight for political survival. Her current 32nd District was dismantled this summer under a GOP-led mid-decade redistricting, pushing her into the newly created 33rd District — the same seat Allred now plans to contest.
Related: The South’s first out LGBTQ+ congresswoman is fighting a GOP effort to cut her out of Congress
On Monday, ahead of Crockett announcing her Senate bid, Allred, who was eyeing that seat, announced he would instead run in Texas’s newly drawn 33rd Congressional District, one of only two seats Democrats view as winnable in the Dallas–Fort Worth metro area after the U.S. Supreme Court last week greenlit the state’s use a GOP-friendly map crafted earlier this year. About one-third of the residents in the new district come from Allred’s former congressional district, which he represented for six years after flipping it in 2018, The Texas Tribune reports.
Crockett filed her paperwork for the Democratic Senate primary on Monday, according to CBS News, triggering a chain reaction across North Texas politics. State Rep. James Talarico, a rising star in the party, is also competing in the Senate primary, setting up what could become a generational contest for the party’s future leadership in Texas.
Related: Texas Dem Colin Allred uses anti-trans language to attack Ted Cruz: ‘Don’t want boys playing girls’ sports’
In announcing his House run, Allred sharply criticized the new district lines, describing the 33rd as racially gerrymandered by President Donald Trump in an effort to further rig democracy. At the same time, he described the district in personal terms as the place where he grew up attending public schools and watching his mother struggle to pay for groceries, and where he now lives with his wife, Aly, and their two sons.
Allred tied his candidacy to his congressional record, pointing to veterans’ access to the Garland VA hospital that he said he helped make a reality and more than $135 million in federal funding he secured for affordable housing, public transportation, and health care. He also invoked January 6, 2021, saying he was prepared to physically defend democracy that day and arguing that the danger posed by Trump is now even greater. Ending his Senate campaign, he said, was driven by his belief that a bruising Democratic primary and runoff would fracture the party ahead of a general election.
Related: Texas is gerrymandering the only LGBTQ+ member of Congress from the South out of her seat
Johnson responded to Allred’s announcement forcefully on Monday, describing Allred’s return as a political recalculation rather than community-rooted leadership. She said she has spent most of her life in North Texas showing up for families who needed someone willing to fight alongside them — work that helped her flip Texas House District 115 after four decades of Republican control and later guided her historic election to Congress. She emphasized that thousands of families in the new district are people she has represented since 2018 and since her election last year.
“This new district deserves representation that has been present in the tough moments, including throughout the redistricting fight, instead of parachuting back when another campaign doesn’t work out,” she said.
Recently, in an interview with The Advocate, Johnson described how she saw herself as a legislator.
“There are workhorses and show horses in everything,” she said. “I definitely am on the workhorse side of things.”
Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson issued a statement in support of Johnson, noting that the organization "proudly stands with her."
“As the first out LGBTQ+ member in Congress from the South, Julie Johnson is a history maker who has dedicated her career in public service to making life better for her constituents in Texas," Robinson said. "She is an important and needed voice in the House of Representatives who will continue the fight for equality and dignity for all."
The contest carries the long shadow of Allred’s high-profile 2024 Senate loss to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The race became one of the most aggressively anti-transgender contests in modern history. Cruz and allied groups flooded Texas airwaves with ads attacking transgender athletes and portraying Allred as extreme on gender issues. In the closing stretch of that campaign, Allred distanced himself from trans-inclusive sports policies and used right-wing language about transgender kids, drawing backlash from LGBTQ+ advocates who accused him of conceding to right-wing scapegoating.
He ultimately lost.
Editor's note: This story was updated to include a statement from the Human Rights Campaign.
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