Rep. Colin Allred discusses Senate bid, Texas high-speed rail

BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – Campaigning for the November General Election is in full swing. Several big races are going to be on the ballot in the fall, including who will represent Texas in the U.S. Senate.

Rep. Colin Allred won the Democratic primary to take on Sen. Ted Cruz.

Republican Cruz has served in the US Senate for two terms after being elected in 2012. Allred, a former NFL player from the Dallas area, was first elected to the U.S. House in 2018.

Allred joined News 3 at Six during a campaign stop in the Bryan-College Station area. While in town, Allred met with The Bryan-College Station Chamber of Commerce as well as a Texas A&M student group.

Allred says he’s looking to bring Texans together.

“I want to serve all 30 million Texans, not pit us against each other,” Allred said.

Allred says he believes the high-speed rail project from Houston to Dallas is important for Texas. The proposed project has plans for a stop in the Brazos Valley. Some Texans against the project have expressed concerns about funding and its potential impact on rural areas. Allred shared what he would say to concerned landowners.

“To the landowners, I hope we can have a refresh and a restart in terms of how it’s approached because I want to make sure the folks are respected, that to the extent that any land is going to be used, that they’re very well compensated for that and that we do it in a way that Texan can feel proud of.”

Allred says the project could lead to additional infrastructure projects across the state.

“I think this would be the first of many options and it’s something that would be safer than driving, faster than flying, better for the environment and also open up a new option for Texans.”

He also believes it will positively impact the state’s economy.

“You could commute, you could live here and work in Dallas or Houston. There’s all kinds of options that would open up that we’ve seen in other parts of the world. In Europe and Japan, they’ve been experiencing this for 50 years. We just haven’t had it here,” said Allred.

Amtrak has federal support for its project, but Texas previously said no to state funds for high-speed rail.

Allred made headlines earlier this year when he joined with Republicans in a resolution to condemn President Joe Biden’s border policies.

“I spent a lot of my childhood in the [Rio Grande] Valley, and so I really recognize that when we have these unregulated kind of flows of migrants that it’s our border communities who bear the brunt of that,” explained Allred. “What I really wanted to see was a much more sense of urgency around responding to that, so they didn’t have to carry all that weight, but then also so that we could have some forward-looking policies to try and slow what we were experiencing.”

Allred says he believes the Senate’s bipartisan border bill would have helped the state with some of these problems. The legislation was released in February after months of talks, but the bill failed to advance in the Senate. Allred’s opponent Cruz was among those to vote no on the legislation.

Cruz meanwhile sponsored a House-passed border bill in the Senate. The Secure the Border Act included stricter provisions than the Senate’s bipartisan bill. Allred voted against the House’s bill.

Watch the full interview with Rep. Allred in the player above. Learn more about the congressman on his website.

KBTX has reached out to Senator Ted Cruz and extended an invitation to do a similar interview with us.