U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, told the Democratic National Convention that his opponent in November, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, and former President Donald Trump can be described with a phrase he once heard bandied about NFL locker rooms: “Me guys.”

“You know the type: talk a big game, only care about themselves, but you don’t want to be stuck with them at a barbecue,” Allred said Thursday night. “The truth is, America has never been about ‘me.’ As President Obama said, the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word ‘we.’”

Allred’s remarks were brief, clocking in just over 2 minutes, but they were delivered to his largest audience yet in his bid to defeat Cruz, R-Texas.

The list of closing-night speakers also included Vice President Kamala Harris as the party wrapped up a four-day rally behind the nominee recently picked to replace President Joe Biden atop the ticket.

It was an opportunity for Allred to reach beyond Texas and raise his national profile in a direct appeal to millions of Americans, all of them potential small-dollar donors who could help financially supercharge the closing stages of his campaign.

Allred said he had a message for “me guys” like Cruz.

“‘We’ is more powerful than ‘me,’” Allred said. “We will protect and restore reproductive freedom. We will secure the border. We will protect Medicare and Social Security. And we will turn the page and write a new chapter for this country, elect Kamala Harris to be the next president and beat Ted Cruz.”

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, introduced Allred as someone who, like Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, grew up in a family where every dollar mattered.

Allred shared a pared-down summary of his biography, noting that like Harris he was raised by a single mother.

“Mom was a public school teacher who often worked two jobs to make ends meet,” he said. “So when we talk about lowering costs, I think about the times when we went to the grocery store when I was growing up and swiped the debit card and said a little prayer.”

Allred played football at Baylor University and in the NFL before becoming a civil rights attorney and winning a congressional seat in 2018.

Widely viewed as an underdog in his race against Cruz, Allred told Texas delegates over breakfast Thursday morning that he’s faced long odds before and national observers are underestimating him.

“They don’t know how sick we are of having a senator who we’re embarrassed by,” Allred said at the breakfast gathering. “But the good news is you don’t have to be embarrassed by your senator. You can get a new one.”

Allred has centered his campaign around his ability to work across the aisle, touting his ranking by the nonprofit Common Ground Committee as the most bipartisan member of the Texas delegation. He also has highlighted his work to pass measures such as a major infrastructure bill that has funded projects in Texas and the CHIPS and Science Act.

The Biden administration recently announced up to $1.6 billion from the CHIPS law to support construction of two semiconductor fabrication plans in Sherman.

Cruz voted against the CHIPS bill, citing what he called inadequate safeguards to ensure spending was kept in the United States.

During his breakfast remarks, Allred criticized Cruz’s role in questioning the 2020 presidential election results, his aborted trip to Cancun during the brutal 2021 winter storm and his support for the state’s abortion ban.

Allred’s criticism of Cruz as a “me guy” also was part of his speech at the state Democratic convention in June. He said Cruz is more interested in building his political brand through his podcast than working on bipartisan solutions to major challenges facing the nation.

Cruz devoted most of his speech at last month’s Republican National Convention to ripping President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, highlighting high-profile cases of Americans killed by people who had entered the country illegally.

Cruz did not mention Allred by name in that speech but has linked Allred to Biden administration policies on immigration, the economy and other issues to portray him as too liberal for the state.

The Cruz campaign this week continued that theme, saying Allred’s participation in the convention shows he’s a “far-left progressive who will work against Texans, not for them.”

Reporter Louis Jacobson contributed to this report.

Joseph Morton, Washington correspondent. Joseph Morton covers the intersection of business and politics in the Washington Bureau. Before joining The News, Joseph worked for CQ Roll Call and the Omaha World-Herald. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.