Does TX33 Have A Dead Blue Armadillo™ Problem Or Not?
Nice people, bad votes, and a district caught in the middle.
A few years back, long-term Lone Star Left readers may remember that we were talking about voting in terms of harm reduction. I said at the time that voting for a dead armadillo was better than voting for a Republican. The particular corporatist Democrat we were framing that conversation around, I said, “Such and so can just be our Dead Blue Armadillo™, we get them in this session, and then worry about replacing them with someone more progressive next go around.”
The Dead Blue Armadillo Problem™ is when the only Democratic options we’re given in a particular race are terrible ones, oil-suckers, corporatists, establishment, right-wing voting Dems. But there aren’t any progressives running, and Republicans are fascists, so it’s the lesser evil.
After my endorsement, progressive hard-liner Zeeshan Hafeez was totally creamed in the Texas Congressional 33 race, I hadn’t planned on talking about this district any more at all. But I still have so much love for this particular district, mostly because it’s where I grew up.
TX33 is 57% Hispanic, 18% Black, and 13% white. The poverty rate is 17%, with over 22% of the children in this district living in poverty. And all of those metrics are really important for this story.
Recently, progressives in Dallas have been reaching out to me to let me know that Colin Allred has turned over a new leaf.
Only last night, someone texted me that Allred was speaking at a union meeting and called for the abolishment of ICE.
And then, this was from Allred’s Instagram:
Well, oh well, it’s a step in the right direction for sure. And if we take everything at face value, it would seem that Allred is certainly leaning further to the left than he did during his previous time in Congress.
And to be perfectly honest with you, even before I learned Allred was willing to come around on some of his positions, I was already favoring him for this race, and I’ll tell you why before this article is over. But there are a few Band-Aids I need to rip off first.
I clocked it in July 2025 and wrote about it. Texas Democrats are much more progressive than the Democrats in Washington DC, and seemingly, Allred figured that out after his 2024 loss, and all of his vocabulary and talking points were different this go around. At the time, I thought it was inauthentic. Since then, he’s moved even further left.
But living under fascism and outside of the DC bubble can radicalize a person. That’s part of the reason Texas Democrats are the most progressive Democrats in America.
So, I take it back. I don’t know if Allred’s move left is authentic or not. I told my progressive friend in Dallas, who is also friends with Allred, and they wanted me to sit down and do a podcast with him. Talk to him about his policy positions.
But I’m not going to. There’s too much baggage, and I don’t want to be pressured into platforming Julie Johnson, too.
Band-Aid #1: But they’re both so nice.
They are. Both of them. Super nice. Last time I saw Colin Allred in person, he took pictures with my kids.
But here are a few things that supersede their niceness:
Colin Allred voted to advance oil and gas pipeline infrastructure.
Julie Johnson voted to make it easier to approve LNG export and import facilities and weaken federal oversight of fossil fuel expansion.
Allred voted for the Protecting America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve from China Act, a bill that failed to reduce oil dependence.
Johnson voted to support a Texas corporate incentive program that gave tax breaks to large industrial projects, including oil and gas, while explicitly excluding wind and solar.
Climate change kills an average of 400,000 people every year. They can be the nicest people in the world, have the biggest smiles every time you see them, but they’re both still responsible for votes that have killed people and our planet. Neither has committed to the Green New Deal.
Now, my friend tells me that Allred is coming around on the AIPAC/Israel issue, but right now, all we have are their records.
In 2024, Allred voted on the Israel Supplemental Appropriations Act.
In 2026, Johnson voted for Israel-related funding that included a ban on UNRWA funding.
So, when you start looking at these two’s history and the votes that really matter, like the death of Earth and genocide, they really look a lot alike.
Band-Aid #2: Neither one of them lives in the district.
It’s actually not a law or a rule that you have to live in the Congressional district you’re running for. Pete Sessions doesn’t live in his district. Probably, plenty of other Republicans don’t either.
Now, remember the demographic data I cited at the beginning of the article.
Something else I want to bring to your attention.
Julie Johnson is a multi-millionaire. Allred, based on his federal filing statements, is not a multi-millionaire (surprising, considering his illustrious NFL career). Not only that, but Julie Johnson is one of the most active stock traders in Congress. Allred has never traded stocks in Congress.
In fact, in Julie Johnson’s first term in Congress, she netted herself over $4 million in trades, probably from the kind of “legal insider trading” that Congresspeople regularly participate in. For example, not too long ago, Johnson found herself on the front pages for trading Palantir stocks while sitting on the Homeland Security Committee.
Where I grew up in East Dallas, we could see the Bank of America building from our house. It was always lit green back then, and we called it the “green palace.” It might as well have been a different country. If you know that side of town, you know what people were actually dealing with under it. My grandmother owned a shotgun house only a few blocks away, off East Grand, and I spent my summers there, playing with kids whose families were getting by however they could. Many of their parents didn’t speak English, but they were working, surviving, raising families in a system that was never built for them.
And now we have context.
Julie Johnson is a multi-millionaire seeking to represent a district she doesn’t live in, that’s 57% Hispanic, and 22% of the children are living in poverty. While she’s been in Congress, she’s profited from the very company that targets districts like this and rips families apart.
The Dallas ICE field office arrested more than 12,000 people in 2025, and a Dallas Morning News analysis found 62% had no criminal convictions. Axios summarized that Dallas had the second-highest number of ICE arrests in the country, averaging about 100 arrests per day.
And speaking as someone who came up in East Dallas, who knows the district and these families, Julie Johnson feels deeply wrong for TX33. Deeply wrong.
Band-Aid #3: Campaign promises are one thing.
The day Julie Johnson decided to run for re-election in TX33, she signed on to the Medicare For All bill. She moved left on that one issue because it was what the campaign moment required. And right now, Colin Allred is saying a lot of the right things, but neither Johnson nor Allred can promise away the sins of their past.
But in my opinion, Colin Allred should win this district.
Not because he’s perfect. Not because he’s suddenly become the progressive champion some people want him to be. But because this is a majority-minority district, and representation matters. Because Julie Johnson had financial entanglements with a company like Palantir while sitting in a position of power tied to immigration enforcement. And because, at least based on the record we have, Allred does not have a history of using his government position to enrich himself in the same way.
But let me be very clear about something. This is not an endorsement.
I’m still mad at Colin Allred. I haven’t forgotten the bullshit he pulled with James Talarico in the primary. I haven’t forgotten him throwing transgender kids under the bus during his Senate run. Those weren’t small things. And they still count.
But this race, in TX33, is not a perfect-world scenario. It’s not even a good one.
It’s a pick-your-poison situation.
Or, if we’re being honest about it, it’s a Dead Blue Armadillo™ situation.
And in this case, I think that armadillo is Colin Allred.
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Great analysis. I hate that redistricting put me in 33 where I may no longer have a Democratic congressperson, but I’m also glad I don’t have to choose between Johnson and Allred for the reasons you state. I have no faith that either of them will take tough stands for us.