Colin Allred courts Black voters in the final days of his bid to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz

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In the final days of his uphill bid for the U.S. Senate, Dallas Congressman Colin Allred is working overtime to lock down the backbone of the Democratic party: Black voters.

In the past five days, Allred, who is running to unseat Republican incumbent Ted Cruz, has campaigned in Houston along with Vice President Kamala Harris, the party’s presidential nominee; Beyoncé, the international pop star and Houston native; and Raphael Warnock, Georgia’s first Black senator.

On Tuesday night, Allred finished a five-day swing through Houston with a rally at Texas Southern University, a historically Black college, where he was introduced by Warnock, who rose to prominence as the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s former congregation.

Allred portrayed Cruz as an absentee senator who fled the state for Cancun while millions of people suffered during a winter freeze in 2021. He criticized Cruz for trying to overturn the results of the presidential election in 2020 and for supporting policies that he said have led to the near-total abortion ban in Texas.

Allred’s rally also featured Samantha Casiano, a Texas woman who had to give birth to a baby her doctors said would not live longer than a day because of a rare and fatal condition that prevents a child’s brain and skull from forming properly. Her daughter only lived for nearly four hours after she was born.

“We’ve got a senator who’s too small for our state and we’ve got one week to do something about it,” Allred told the crowd of a few hundred as speakers encouraged attendees to participate in block walks and phone banks. “We gotta make sure that we get out the vote.”

First: Georgia's senator, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, takes to the stage at Sawyer Auditorium on the campus of Texas Southern University to encourage people to get out and vote for Colin Allred. Last: Allred speaks on the steps of Houston’s City Hall at the 10,000 Black Men rally on Sunday, Oct. 27. Credit: Douglas Sweet Jr. for The Texas Tribune

Allred is the underdog in the race against Cruz, a two-term Republican senator, in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office in 30 years. So his hopes of making the race competitive rely on running up the tally with the core of the Democratic base, a large chunk of which is Black voters.

Je’Von Tone, a 22 year-old student at the campus, said he had been waiting for Allred to visit the university since the start of the campaign. He was excited that Allred brought Warnock with him and was making an appeal to Black and young voters.

“This race is going to be very, very close especially for people who are in my age group, because we tend to have the lowest turnout,” Tone said. “So he's going to make every last push that he can to make any stops that he can go to: schools, church, homes, block-walking, phone-banking and any get-out-the-vote efforts he can do.”

During his time in Houston, Allred shared the stage with Harris and Beyoncé at a packed event with more than 20,000 people at Shell Energy Stadium on Friday; hosted a 10,000 Black Men of Greater Houston Rally on Saturday; and presided over roundtables with Black business leaders Tuesday.

Those recent events have projected a sense of urgency for an Allred campaign that ran under the radar and tried to appeal to moderate Republican and independent voters for much of the race. Now, his campaign is running a full-court press to turn out the Democratic base.

Candice Matthews, the chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats, said Allred has been in touch with her group throughout the race and has solid name recognition among Black voters. But the appearance at Texas Southern was a strategically smart move, she said.

“This is an excellent step, coming to an HBCU, showing the students that they matter,” she said.

She’Deja Martin, a 20-year-old student at the rally, said she wanted to learn more about Allred. She planned to vote for him because she disliked Cruz but said she had just learned about the Democratic candidate in the last week. She thought Allred’s stop at the school would help him among her fellow students.

“[But] it may have helped to come a little sooner because a lot of people have already voted,” she said.

In recent days, Allred has started more openly making appeals to Black voters. Last week, in a fundraising text message to supporters, he noted he would be the state’s first Black senator and said that “Black Americans have long faced far too many obstacles like discrimination and the racist voter suppression laws that Texas Republicans like Ted Cruz have championed.”

During the roundtable with Black business leaders, Allred was joined by former City Council Member Dwight Boykins and state Sen. Borris Miles of Houston, who represents a majority African American district. Miles offered his help in the final days of the election.

“We’re just here in the fight,” he said. “We’re trying to get you across the line.”

Boykins said Allred was visiting Houston at a crucial point. Most voters are only now deciding who they will vote for and their choice in the Senate race will likely follow their pick in the presidential election. Allred running TV ads and visiting major cities will help his name recognition when voters are making that choice.

“I think his name ID is strong enough in the commercials he’s running, believable enough, to get him where he’s trying to go,” Boykins said.

Also on Tuesday, Allred held a roundtable with women who have been impacted by the state’s near-total abortion ban and their physicians, where he promised to codify Roe v. Wade into law if he is elected.

Allred will head to the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday, where he will look to shore up support from another core base for his party: Hispanic voters.

Disclosure: Texas Southern University - Barbara Jordan-Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.