Despite attempts during his campaign to portray himself as a centrist, Democrat United States Senate candidate Colin Allred is spending the final days of his campaign returning to his roots as an advocate against voter identification and election integrity laws.
Allred, who describes himself as a “voting rights lawyer,” published an op-ed in recent days in which he describes laws requiring voter identification and limiting mail-in voting as “voter suppression” and “anti-democratic voting laws.”
“In Congress, I’ve been working to reinstate and modernize the Voting Rights Act to stop harmful voter suppression laws. To ensure more Americans can participate in our democracy, we must expand early voting, make Election Day a federal holiday, and take steps like same-day voter registration that make voting more accessible, not create barriers that harm it,” wrote Allred.
“Despite these efforts, laws passed across the nation now make it harder for Americans to vote by mail, limit early voting hours, and have burdensome voter registration and voter ID provisions.”
Prior to his election to Congress in 2018, Allred worked under prominent Democrat election lawyer Marc Elias at the law firm of Perkins Coie. During his time at Perkins Coie, Allred worked alongside Elias on a lawsuit challenging voter identification and other election laws in Wisconsin.
The lawsuit, brought by the liberal advocacy organization One Wisconsin Institute, resulted in a Federal judge narrowing the State’s voter identification law and striking down laws that limited early voting locations and times, expanded the residency requirement to register to vote, and other election integrity measures passed by the Wisconsin legislature and signed into law.
Earlier this year, Allred voted against the “SAVE Act”. That legislation, introduced by Texas Republican Congressman Chip Roy, would have required individuals to provide proof of American citizenship to be able to register to vote in a federal election. The SAVE Act passed the House on a 221-198 vote but did not receive a vote in the Senate.
Elias, Allred’s former law partner, has since left Perkins Coie and opened his own law firm, the Elias Law Group. Elias has gained notoriety for his aggressive style of “lawfare,” which has earned him criticism on both sides of the aisle and from members of the judiciary.
In 2021, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sanctioned Elias for his “lack of candor” with the Court. In a recent profile of Elias, the New York Times reported that the Elias Law Group has been paid more than $104 million from Democratic politicians and organizations since the firm opened in late 2021.
Elias’ clients in Texas include the Texas Majority PAC, which has received $6.45 million from George Soros since its launch last year. The Texas Majority PAC has paid the Elias Law group over $250,000 since last July.
