The Texas Democrat running to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz says he's "proud" to accept an endorsement from a George Soros-funded group that supports defunding the police.
Rep. Colin Allred touted his endorsement from Reproductive Freedom for All, a Soros-funded nonprofit organization. In a statement released last Wednesday, Allred said he was "proud to earn the endorsement" and that he looks forward to working alongside the group.
"Texans' freedoms are under attack, and that includes the freedom to get the health care you need—including an abortion," said Allred. "I will fight to restore those freedoms in the Senate and ensure we protect access to birth control and reproductive health care. I am proud to earn the endorsement of Reproductive Freedom for All and look forward to working alongside them to beat Ted Cruz."
The organization has long embraced the movement to defund police and repeatedly called for dismantling the "systems of oppression that are still so entrenched in society." The group has also stressed the need to "divest from law enforcement in Black and brown communities."
"It's past time to defund the police," the group tweeted in 2021. "After multiple failed attempts to change the culture of policing, it's clear that police have not succeeded in reckoning with the generations of systemic racism, oppression, and state violence it has engaged in. We must continue to do better."
Since 2018, the congressman has received over $13,000 in campaign contributions from the group, also known as NARAL. Allred did not respond to a request for comment about the endorsement.
In 2022, George Soros's Open Society Foundations awarded a $4.5 million grant to the Reproductive Freedom for All Committee "to support policy advocacy on reproductive freedom in Michigan." Allred's campaigns have also received tens of thousands of dollars directly from the Soros family. George, Alex, Robert, Jennifer, and Jonathan Soros collectively donated $29,900 to Allred's campaigns between 2018 and 2023, of which $13,200 was for his Senate run, according to financial disclosures.
The activist organization has taken inflammatory stances on other issues beyond defunding the police. In 2020 the group said that white women "uphold the patriarchy," and in 2022 it accused "the right" of setting up barriers that "rip away the freedom to vote" from "Latinx" people, among others.
"The deliberate barriers set up by the right rip away the freedom to vote from all Americans, and disproportionately harm Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American and Pacific Islanders, and all people of color. And it needs to end," said the group.
While in Congress, Allred has voted against notably pro-police measures. Amid a violent crime spike in Washington, D.C., he voted against a motion to recommit a bill that would have required the nation's capital to provide "adequate and continued funding" for police officers. A year later, he voted against a motion to condemn calls to defund the police.