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This week on At Our Table [ [link removed] ], I talked with former U.S. House Rep. Colin Allred [ [link removed] ]. We covered a lot of ground, but at its core, the conversation was about service, accountability, and who politics is actually supposed to work for.
Rep. Allred started where so much of his story begins: with his mom.
“When you’re raised by a single mother, you need a lot of help. I’ve honestly always felt very fortunate to have had incredible people around me. And I think that’s what’s driven my desire to try and serve and to try and give back.”
That sense of responsibility showed up again when we talked about one of the things he’s proudest of in Congress, and it wasn’t a bill or a vote. It was an idea.
“It wasn’t legislation. It wasn’t voting on something. It was just having an idea and the convening power… We got this hospital donated at the value of $400 million… It’s serving our veterans right now. It’s created 5,000 jobs.”
Rep. Allred kept coming back to the same point: government can do big things when we stop treating cynicism as wisdom and obstruction as inevitability.
We also talked plainly about leadership failures in Texas. No euphemisms. No hedging.
“Ted Cruz, to me, is the ultimate ‘me guy.’ I was there on January 6th… my wife was pregnant and I didn’t know that I was gonna make it out that day. And he was somebody that had been going around the country lying about the election, even though he knew better.”
But what struck me most was how clear-eyed Rep. Allred was about the disconnect between elite political conversations and real life. Especially when it comes to affordability, corruption, and trust.
“You can’t tell them the economy is the best in the world. It might be in terms of the macroeconomics, but it isn’t for them.”
And that honesty extended inward too. Rep. Allred didn’t pretend Democrats don’t have work to do.
“Folks would agree that Trump is corrupt. But they also say, ‘what about the stock trading in Congress?’ And all you can say to them is you’re absolutely right, that’s wrong too.”
We ended by talking about respect—for voters, for candidates, and for communities that are too often treated as an afterthought.
“Don’t come to Black people every election cycle for our votes and then be disrespectful of us as candidates. Qualified candidates.”
That word—qualified—hung in the air.
Colin Allred isn’t asking anyone for permission to lead. He’s telling us what leadership actually looks like when you center people instead of pundits.
If we want different outcomes, we need leaders who aren’t afraid to tell the truth—even when it makes the comfortable uncomfortable.
Pull up a chair. The conversation is worth your time.

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