DALLAS — Colin Allred finished first in the March 2026 Democratic primary for Texas's 33rd Congressional District with 44 percent of the vote, about 11 percentage points ahead of Julie Johnson. The two will meet in a May 26 runoff in the Dallas-centered, heavily Democratic district, with immigration policy at the center of both campaigns.

The winner of the Democratic runoff will face the winner of the Republican runoff between Patrick Gillespie and John Sims in the November general election. Had the redrawn 33rd District existed in 2024, it would have gone to Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly 33 percentage points.

Allred has called for the abolition of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and denounced for-profit immigration enforcement. He said, "ICE has to go. I think we should get rid of ICE, abolish ICE, whatever you want to call it. But I still think that we're going to have to have immigration enforcement in this country. It just has to be done consistent with our values." In a campaign advertisement, he promised to "stop ICE, end the mass raids and make sure every ICE agent who breaks the law is prosecuted." In February 2026, Allred ran a television advertisement alleging Johnson made thousands of dollars from trading stock in Palantir, a company involved in the Trump administration's deportation efforts.

Johnson, who has called to defund ICE and advocated for comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform, labeled Allred a "flip-flopper." "What Colin Allred did is abdicate all of his Democratic values because he thought it was politically convenient for him," she said. Johnson said, "Part of what you're seeing is a government and administration ignoring the rule of law, ignoring constitutional rights and protections, being rogue and abusive and really doing terrible things."

Johnson sold her Palantir shares after joining Congress and said she made $90 from the transactions, adding that her stocks were managed through independent third parties. She attacked Allred's support for a bill that would penalize migrants who flee from pursuing federal agents while driving and another bill targeting funding for cities and counties that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Johnson said she used her position on the House Homeland Security Committee to press then-Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to follow the Constitution in deportation efforts, and called for transparency regarding the Dallas Police Department's cooperation with ICE.

Allred previously broke from Democrats on multiple immigration bills, including the Laken Riley Act, which required no-bond detention for undocumented immigrants accused of certain crimes such as shoplifting. In January 2024, he was one of 14 Democrats, including three from Texas, to vote in favor of a bill condemning the Biden administration's border policy. Arrests for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border peaked at almost 250,000 in December 2023 during President Joe Biden's term.

Allred said, "I've always thought Democrats need to put forward what they're for and what they're against. I'd like to hear what Julie Johnson's plan is, as opposed to just what she thinks the mistakes are in the past." His family is from the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas, where he outperformed Harris by about 10 percentage points in the 2024 election.