Former Rep. Colin Allred has defeated Rep. Julie Johnson in the Democratic primary runoff for Texas’s newly drawn 33rd Congressional District, according to Decision Desk HQ. The matchup pitted two sitting Democratic lawmakers against each other after the state’s Republican-controlled redistricting process scrambled the political map.
Johnson had succeeded Allred in the previous cycle when he vacated his seat to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz. Allred lost that 2024 Senate race and initially launched a bid against Sen. John Cornyn in 2026, but he abandoned that effort to re-enter the House contest, creating an awkward intra-party battle.
Neither candidate secured more than 50 percent in the initial March 3 primary, forcing a nearly three-month runoff campaign. In the runoff, Allred went after Johnson over her stock trades while in Congress, while Johnson accused Allred of flip-flopping on immigration policy, criticizing his votes in the House.
The district—currently held by Rep. Marc Veasey—was redrawn as part of a GOP-friendly map that Texas Republicans pushed through to create new pickup opportunities ahead of the midterms. State Democrats fled the state in a failed attempt to block the plan, triggering a nationwide debate over mid-decade redistricting.
The new map effectively merges Veasey’s 33rd District with Johnson’s 32nd District, creating a safe Republican seat in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to an analysis by Dave Wasserman of the Cook Political Report. Veasey, who dropped his reelection bid, called the maps “part of a long, ugly tradition of trying to keep Black and brown [Texans] from having a voice.”
As the runoff campaign intensified, House Democratic leadership—including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Suzan DelBene, who chairs the party’s campaign arm—backed Johnson. But Allred’s name recognition and fundraising edge proved decisive in the primary contest.
The Cook Political Report rates the 33rd District as solidly Democratic, meaning Allred is expected to win the general election easily. The outcome also highlights the broader fallout from Texas’s aggressive redistricting, which has reshaped the state’s congressional delegation and forced incumbents into awkward matchups.
Allred’s return to the House after his Senate loss marks a rare political comeback, but it also underscores the challenges Democrats face in a state where gerrymandering has limited their ability to expand their footprint. The runoff result ensures that the district will remain in Democratic hands, but the party’s internal divisions and the GOP’s map-drawing power remain central issues heading into November.
