Harlingen doctor becomes first Democrat to challenge GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz for South Texas congressional seat
Anchored in Hidalgo County along the border and running north to the edge of San Antonio, the district — represented by Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg — has been emblematic of Democrats' recent struggles throughout the Rio Grande Valley and with Latino voters generally. De La Cruz first won office in 2022, becoming the first Republican to represent the district after it was redrawn to favor Republicans.
The seat has been in Democrats' crosshairs ever since. But South Texas was the epicenter of a national rightward shift in 2024 among Latinos, who make up about three-quarters of the 15th District's eligible voting-age population, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. President Donald Trump was the first Republican to win Hidalgo County in decades, improving from a 28% vote share in 2016 to 51% last year.
Whoever wins the Democratic nomination will likely face an uphill battle. De La Cruz won reelection by 14 points in 2024, despite the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and other national groups targeting it as a potential pickup. The district leans Republican by a 7-point margin, according to the Cook Partisan Voting Index.
While Cuellar — who has no relation to Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo — is the first candidate to officially announce, Tejano music star Bobby Pulido has also been floated as a potential candidate. Pulido said he planned to enter politics in 2026, and he has been heavily recruited by Democrats, according to Politico.
Cuellar lives outside the district boundary, in the district of Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-McAllen. She is from Weslaco and went to college in Edinburg.
Members of Congress do not have to live in the district they represent, though residing outside the boundaries can open candidates to attacks from their opponents.
De La Cruz is the only Texas Republican the DCCC currently lists among its 2026 targets. But the spectre of redistricting, which could put more seats in play and upend the state's political map, is hanging over both parties. South Texas is a key area where Republican map-drawers will likely try to draw friendlier seats by targeting De La Cruz's Democratic neighbors, meaning the contours of the 15th District could change.
Under any new map, the district's population is likely to remain overwhelmingly Hispanic — meaning Democrats will need to reverse their recent slide to have any chance of recapturing the seat.
Cuellar, a 43-year-old Rio Grande Valley native, believes Latino voters, in particular, were looking for change last cycle as they felt the bite of high costs fueled by inflation. She believes Democrats can position themselves as the party of change in 2026, especially on issues like health care, after Republicans including De La Cruz voted for Medicaid cuts as part of Trump's recently enacted megabill.
'People are frustrated with health care costs, inflation, the economy, how difficult it is to succeed,' Cuellar said. 'And I think a lot of frustrations were directed towards the Democratic Party.'
Democrats flipped the U.S. House in 2018 — including through pickups in Texas — largely by talking about Republicans' efforts to quash the Affordable Care Act. Democrats hope to follow a similar playbook in 2026 by homing in on the Medicaid and ACA cuts in the megabill. Groups have been actively recruiting physicians like Cuellar to run for office as part of that pitch.
During her campaign, Cuellar said she also plans to discuss the need for a county hospital and more doctors in the district, along with plans to make health care more affordable.
Disclosure: Politico has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
The lineup for The Texas Tribune Festival continues to grow! Be there when all-star leaders, innovators and newsmakers take the stage in downtown Austin, Nov. 13–15. The newest additions include comedian, actor and writer John Mulaney; Dallas mayor Eric Johnson; U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota; New York Media Editor-at-Large Kara Swisher; and U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. Get your tickets today!
TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
5 minutes ago
- New York Times
New York Republicans Unite in Attacking Mamdani
Zohran Mamdani may well be far out of sight, visiting family in Uganda some 7,000 miles from New York City. But he is clearly not far from the minds of Republicans. On Wednesday, within a matter of a few hours, Mr. Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, was targeted by two prominent Republican House members in New York and the New York Young Republican Club. Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican who represents a crucial Hudson Valley swing seat, introduced a bill called the MAMDANI Act, an acronym that stands for Measuring Adverse Market Disruption And National Impact. The bill is aimed at studying the effect of Mr. Mamdani's proposal for five city-owned grocery stores. 'Zohran Mamdani's push for government-owned grocery stores is straight out of the Marxist playbook, and history shows exactly how this experiment ends,' Mr. Lawler said, arguing that the candidate's 'socialist fantasies' would fail. Mr. Mamdani has proposed creating one municipal grocery store in each borough to help lower prices for shoppers. The stores could help reduce costs by using city land or buildings, buying food wholesale and receiving an exemption from property taxes. An hour earlier, Representative Elise Stefanik, a fellow New York Republican and close ally of President Trump, issued a drive-by attack on Mr. Mamdani, warning that a 'radical communist defund-the-police antisemite may be elected mayor of New York City.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Post
6 minutes ago
- New York Post
Dem Senator Elissa Slotkin complains party is too worried about ‘p—ing off' the Internet
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., says that Democrats are too worried about making people angry and that they 'constrain' themselves too much. During an interview last week on PBS's 'Firing Line with Margaret Hoover,' Hoover asked Slotkin about President Barack Obama's recent criticism of Democrats, where he said that his party should 'toughen up.' 'President Obama chided Democrats, saying they need to 'toughen up' against Donald Trump. You have said we need more 'alpha energy' in the Democratic Party,' Hoover told Slotkin. Slotkin agreed, and Hoover asked if she and Obama are 'saying the same thing.' 'I don't know if we're saying the exact same thing, but it sort of smells the same, right,' Slotkin said. 'And I think this idea that Democrats are so careful, and they're so caveated, and they're so worried about offending each other, offending other people, they're so worried about pissing off people on the Internet. They live often in a world where they constrain themselves.' Hoover then asked if Democrats are 'too sensitive.' 'I think some of them, sure, are too sensitive,' Slotkin said. 'And this is, to me, the central point, especially with Donald Trump in the White House, this is just not a moment to be careful and polite. We need a plan. We need to be on the same page. We need to play as a team. We need to call out when someone isn't helping the team. And we need to hug someone when they do something great.' 3 'They're so worried about pissing off people on the Internet,' Senator Slotkin said about Democrats. 'They live often in a world where they constrain themselves.' PBS 3 Slotkin agreed with Barack Obama's statement that the party should 'toughen up.' 'It sort of smells the same, right,' Slotkin said. Getty Images The PBS host asked Slotkin if she was saying that Republicans are afraid of Trump, and if Democrats 'fear each other's factions.' Slotkin responded by saying that some 'fear' backlash on X, still often referred to as its former name Twitter. Every morning, the NY POSTcast offers a deep dive into the headlines with the Post's signature mix of politics, business, pop culture, true crime and everything in between. Subscribe here! 'You know, I've been shocked — you know, I'm new to the Senate, six months in — how many of my peers said, 'Well, Elissa, I'd love to be with you on that issue, but, you know, Twitter will be mad. You know, the Internet people will be mad at me,'' Slotkin said. 'They literally say that,' Hoover asked. 3 'Especially with Donald Trump in the White House, this is just not a moment to be careful and polite,' the sentor said. 'We need a plan.' AP 'Yeah. There'll be a bad online response,' Slotkin admitted. Obama's 'toughen up' comments referenced by Hoover were made at a fundraiser in July where he said Democrats should complain less.
Axios
6 minutes ago
- Axios
Scoop: Rand Paul stalls Mike Waltz nomination for UN ambassador
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is standing in the way of Mike Waltz's nomination as ambassador to the United Nations, dealing a serious setback to Trump's former national security adviser, sources familiar with the matter tell Axios. Why it matters: Paul's resistance to Waltz forced the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to delay an expected Wednesday vote on the nomination. The committee is now in recess. Some Republicans are still hopeful that Paul can be convinced to support Waltz or that one or more Democrats will decide to back him in committee, according to people familiar with the matter. A key Waltz adviser expressed strong confidence that Waltz would garner bipartisan support in committee. What he's saying: When asked if he plans to support Waltz, Paul told Axios: "They pulled it for now, we're going to see what happens over the next week." "If you want to report my opinion," he continued, "I had an exchange in the committee last week — that's probably the best thing to report." Zoom out: Paul grilled Waltz in his confirmation hearing last week, demanding to know why he tried, as a House member, to force Trump to keep 8,000 troops in Afghanistan. "The idea that Congress should be involved with declaring war is sort of passé. It's old-fashioned. But when it comes to ending a war, you voted with Liz Cheney and the others to say that the president couldn't end the war," Paul said in a heated exchange. The intrigue: Some Democrats are privately concerned about who Trump might nominate if Waltz goes down, citing their deep misgivings about other rumored candidates, like Richard Grenell, Trump's ambassador to Germany in his first term. The bottom line: Waltz still might be reported out of committee in the coming days.
