In rematch, Jessica Cisneros faces a weakened Henry Cuellar for South Texas congressional seat

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WASHINGTON — A political knife struggle within the streets of Laredo. An bold challenger with highly effective allies and formidable fundraising. A longtime congressman who as soon as coasted to reelection dealing with an existential check amid redistricting in a Democratic main.

The yr was 2004, and it was the final yr any Texas Democratic congressmen would lose reelection in a main.

And in that Laredo race, the challenger was Henry Cuellar.

Eighteen years later, the tables have turned on the now-senior Democrat. He faces a bonafide menace to his political livelihood within the type of legal professional Jessica Cisneros, a progressive darling, fellow Laredo native and former intern in Cuellar’s congressional workplace.

The Could 24 main runoff election is a rematch from two years in the past, when Cisneros fell simply in need of pushing Cuellar to a runoff in 2020. She is difficult him once more, and as soon as extra, liberal teams are solidly consolidated behind her. Cuellar is undoubtedly formidable, with the backing of a number of the get together’s high nationwide leaders.

However after an unrelenting slew of unhealthy political information for Cuellar this yr, he’s by no means been extra weak.

Previous to the Could 3 leak of a U.S. Supreme Court docket draft ruling that seems able to overturn Roe v. Wade, the matchup was already attracting the eye of Democratic leaders in a race that embodied the yearslong struggle between progressives and pragmatists for management of the get together.

However now, Cuellar’s file because the final anti-abortion Democrat within the Home has reignited ire from members of the get together from throughout the nation, who’re nonetheless reeling from the studies that abortion may quickly be outlawed in half of the nation. On that situation and different insurance policies — unions, border safety, and oil and gasoline — he and Cisneros are at odds.

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“The stakes are very excessive,” stated Jose Borjon, a Washington-based lobbyist initially from South Texas who as soon as labored for Cuellar and continues to help him.

“This can be a large deal for Democrats,” he added, suggesting that this race serves as a proxy struggle amid a bigger divide throughout the get together nationally. “It’s an enormous deal for the temper of our nation. It’s an enormous deal in politics … as a result of it pits progressive insurance policies espoused by Cisneros over extra centrist insurance policies espoused by Cuellar.”

The Supreme Court docket leak roiled the race, however Cuellar’s marketing campaign was already injured from when the FBI performed a mysterious and nonetheless unexplained raid on his Laredo house and marketing campaign workplace weeks earlier than the March main. Cuellar’s legal professional has stated the FBI knowledgeable him that Cuellar isn’t a goal of an investigation, and Cuellar has denied wrongdoing.

Cisneros capitalized on the information, elevating a shocking amount of cash for the race.

Six weeks later, Cuellar was unable in March to win the first outright, falling in need of the bulk wanted to keep away from a runoff.

Earlier than the raid, he started the marketing campaign season from a stronger place than two years in the past: He raised thousands and thousands of {dollars} over the past two years for this race, and he modernized his political operation. Cisneros, too, is an improved candidate this yr. She first ran as a 26-year-old contemporary out of regulation faculty. This time round, she has a extra polished presentation and her nationwide progressive supporters are much more decided to take out Cuellar.

“I satisfaction myself on having an ear to the bottom and I say that as a result of if the problems we’re working on aren’t essential to folks within the district, there was no manner {that a} first-time, 26-year-old challenger final time round would have come so near defeating an incumbent that is been in workplace longer than I’ve been alive, proper?” Cisneros stated in an interview earlier this month.

Recently, Cisneros has leaned into her stance for abortion rights as a distinction to Cuellar’s file. However in different instances, she softened her rhetoric on a number of the positions she took in 2018 that gave her blowback.

As an example, within the final marketing campaign cycle, Cisneros advocated to “cut up [U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement] in half and reassign enforcement features … to different businesses, together with the Division of Justice,” in a candidate survey with 350 Motion, a bunch fashioned to struggle local weather change.

This February, Cuellar’s camp seized on that time, saying in a broadly seen tv commercial that her place could be “… leaving us with open borders that will make us much less protected and value us 1000’s of jobs, placing our safety and economic system in jeopardy.”

When requested if she nonetheless backed that ICE coverage from November 2019, Cisneros targeted on influence to jobs.

“I’d by no means help any type of coverage or laws that will take anybody’s jobs away as a result of I, myself, know the way troublesome it’s making ends meet,” she stated.

“I understand how scary it’s for folks to suppose that their livelihood goes to be messed with,” she added.

However Cisneros nonetheless embraces her progressivism with abandon.

She describes abortion “as well being care.” She helps a Inexperienced New Deal in oil and gasoline nation. And her marketing campaign has hosted a succession of progressive celebrities — together with U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, plus U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York — who’ve come to the district to marketing campaign for her.

Cuellar in bother

It’s noteworthy each time a U.S. Home incumbent loses reelection in a main as a result of such losses are so uncommon. Sometimes, solely a small handful of members lose this fashion every cycle. The final U.S. Home member to lose reelection from Texas was in 2014, when U.S. Rep. Ralph Corridor misplaced the Republican nomination to John Ratcliffe, who went on to serve in Congress and because the director of nationwide intelligence underneath President Donald Trump.

The 2 strongest indicators of political hazard for a Texas U.S. Home incumbent are dealing with a runoff problem and being outraised by a challenger.

Cuellar at the moment faces each circumstances.

In an interview within the days after the Supreme Court docket abortion information, Cisneros stated her fundraising employees was inundated by donors motivated to oust an anti-abortion Democrat.

And that’s contemporary cash that got here into the Cisneros group after marketing campaign finance studies displaying that by Could 4, she had raised $4.5 million over the course of the cycle, in comparison with Cuellar’s $3.1 million.

Compared, there’s a a lot quieter Democratic main in a much more costly tv promoting market in Dallas. The 2 candidates there, state Rep. Jasmine Crockett and former Congressional staffer Jane Hamilton, have raised $567,000 and $654,000, respectively.

Cuellar allies argue that abortion is a sophisticated situation within the closely Catholic area, and that different points matter extra to voters, together with border safety, which is a matter they anticipate will profit Cuellar. Cuellar has sided with Republicans in calling for President Joe Biden to maintain in place Title 42, a pandemic-era coverage that permits immigration officers to expel migrants on the southern border with out giving them an opportunity to hunt asylum.

And regardless of the renewed scrutiny of this race, they argue Cuellar’s work ethic and ties to the group will earn him a tenth time period. Borjon, the previous Cuellar staffer, instructed The Texas Tribune that whereas making an attempt to achieve out to Cuellar final week, the congressman briefly stepped apart to take the decision whereas attending a neighborhood commencement ceremony in his district — certainly one of at the least 5 Cuellar was scheduled to attend over the weekend.

“Henry Cuellar will present as much as something for anybody, anyplace within the twenty eighth District of Texas,” Borjon stated. “He is without doubt one of the hardest-working members of Congress that I do know.”

Cuellar declined a request for an interview.

A fractured get together 

Regardless of the tumult, Cuellar’s highly effective allies have doubled down on their help of him.

U.S. Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated her help for Cuellar final week, an announcement that enraged and astonished the left within the wake of the Supreme Court docket developments.

“I am supporting Henry Cuellar,” she stated at a information convention. “He’s a valued member of our caucus.”

On the similar time, EMILY’s Checklist, an influential group that works to elect Democratic girls who help abortion rights and with whom Pelosi has been carefully aligned for many years, is certainly one of Cisneros’ strongest backers. Final week the group booked a few half-million-dollar tv promoting purchase to assist Cisneros.

Pelosi final week repeated studies that his legal professional stated Cuellar was not a goal of the FBI investigation. She added that anti-abortion Democrats have served within the Home earlier than, and his vote was not wanted to cross a invoice within the Home to codify Roe v. Wade into federal regulation final fall.

“He’s not pro-choice, however we didn’t want him,” she stated. “We handed the invoice with what we had.”

And she or he’s not alone: U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, the third-ranking Home Democrat, campaigned for Cuellar earlier this month in San Antonio, and the fourth-ranking Home Democrat, U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York donated to Cuellar’s marketing campaign in a latest marketing campaign finance report.

Now not a Democratic bulwark

When Cuellar first gained in 2004, an Austin Chronicle recap of that yr’s elections across the state described South Texas as a area that “stays the state’s Democratic bulwark.”

The 2020 election shattered that long-held consensus, as Democrats throughout the area noticed their margins shrink to underfunded Republican candidates.

So now for the primary time in trendy historical past, South Texas Democrats need to issue the overall election into their concerns in selecting their nominees as a result of coming Republican onslaught which will likely be led by both Cassy Garcia or Sandra Whitten, who’re competing for the Republican nomination in their very own runoff.

In April, political analyst David Wasserman stated out loud to the Tribune what many Republican and Democratic operatives have been saying privately: South Texas is way extra socially conservative than many Democratic-leaning hubs, and lots of of Cisneros’ largest supporters don’t dwell in her district. As such, Cuellar is the extra electable contender within the fall, Wasserman and others have argued.

When requested about this notion, Cisneros stated her ascent signifies she is extra in contact with the district.

“Individuals typically say that about incumbents, proper?” Cisneros instructed the Tribune. “I believe the enhance that Henry claims to get is one which stems from him being an incumbent, not a lot somebody that’s really representing the values of the district.”

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