Dist. 28 House contest heats up
WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar hasn't faced a real challenge in years. Now the 15-year incumbent is bringing in all the help he can muster to fend off primary challenger Jessica Cisneros, a progressive immigration attorney who would fit right in with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Oasio Cortez’s squad in D.C.
The support for Cuellar rolling in during the final stretch includes the conservative Koch brothers, whose political action committee has spent at least $40,000 to defend Cuellar — a Democrat, though one of the most conservative in Congress. Oil and pharmaceutical companies, too, have poured thousands into the probusiness congressman’s campaign over the final days of the primary. Local businessmen and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have spent as well in what has shaped up to be one of the most expensive races in the state — with the total raised and spent in the South Texas district well beyond the $5 million mark.
And yet Cisneros, a 26-year-old daughter of Mexican immigrants who would be the youngest member of Congress, has outraised Cuellar during the final months of the race, backed by major progressive groups, including EMILY’s List, which supports women candidates, and Justice Democrats, the group that helped Ocasio-Cortez defeat a longtime moderate Democrat New York congressman in 2018.
Even as both sides have insisted all the outside interest matters little to South Texas voters, the race is one of the most watched congressional primaries in the nation,
another arena for the battle between moderate Democrats who have long been in control and a rising left wing pushing everything from an end to fossil fuels to Medicare For All.
The district is solidly blue. Hillary Clinton won it by nearly 20 points in 2016, when Cuellar beat the last Republican to challenge him by a 2-to-1 margin. But the race will test the appeal of some of the party’s most progressive policy proposals — including the Green New Deal, which calls for a swift shift away from fossil fuels — in a district where the oil and gas industry employs tens of thousands.
Cuellar called Cisneros a “socialist” in a last-minute email to supporters this week — keying on the buzzword that has defined much of the Democratic presidential primary.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Laredo earlier this month and stopped at Cuellar's campaign headquarters for a pep talk. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is supporting Cuellar in the race, as well.
Cisneros, meanwhile, has the backing of Ocasio-Cortez — the architect of the Green New Deal, who is now pushing a ban on fracking that has already been denounced by some moderate Texas Democrats, including Cuellar. Bernie Sanders, too, has voiced support for Cisneros, as have Elizabeth
Warren and Julián Castro, the former San Antonio mayor and presidential hopeful now campaigning for Warren.
“This is a turning point,” Cisneros said in an interview with Hearst Newspapers. “I feel like before this cycle, maybe a lot of folks thought this wasn’t possible.”
Corporate backers ‘terrified’
All of the attention has brought a lot of last-minute spending.
Cuellar, who has more than $2 million on hand, reported nearly $84,000 in contributions this week alone. That includes thousands from oil groups such as the American Petroleum Institute and Murphy Oil, payday lender Checksmart Financial and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. He’s received donations from local businessmen as well, including Patrick Kennedy Jr., chairman and CEO of the company that owns San Antonio’s La Mansion del Rio hotel.
Americans for Prosperity, a political action committee backed by the conservative Koch brothers, has spent more than $40,000 on mailers supporting Cuellar over the last week, according to federal filings. That comes after Cuellar earlier this month became the first Democrat in a federal race backed by another Koch-funded group, the LIBRE Initiative, focused on Hispanic outreach.
“Cuellar has been a model of what an effective congressman should look like,” the group said in a memo about the endorsement. “He has sought out and found allies on both sides of the aisle to push real solutions to real problems. He has done so at considerable political risk.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, meanwhile, is spending at least $200,000 on TV ads supporting Cuellar, who also received a boost from the nonprofit American Workers for Progress, a dark money group that earlier this year poured more than $720,000 into ads.
Cisneros said the late spending spree makes it clear that “his corporate backers are terrified.”
Cisneros, too, is raising money, including more than $29,000 over the past week. Most of that came from individuals — nearly all outside Texas — during the final days of the race. Cisneros has also received help on the airwaves. Super PAC Texas Forward, which is affiliated with EMILY’s List, paid nearly $1.2 million for ads supporting her earlier this year.
“The voters of South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley will decide the outcome of this election, not outside special interest groups,” said Colin Strother, a spokesman for Cuellar’s campaign. “Our closing message to anyone and everyone is go vote.”
People are doing just that, especially in three counties along the border that make up the bulk of the district. Early voting ended Friday; election day is March 3.
‘New York flavor’
By the end of Thursday, more than 15,000 people had voted in the Democratic primary in Webb County — over 11 percent of registered voters in the county that holds the largest share of the district’s residents. Nearly 30 percent of registered voters in Starr County — more than 9,000 — had already voted in the primary by that point. And more than 36 percent, nearly 3,000 voters, had cast ballots in Zapata County.
It’s been years since South Texas has seen a race like this.
“It’s definitely very tense down here right now, even within our own party,” said Amber Avis, who chairs the Webb County Young Democrats and is a Cisneros supporter. She says there’s a generational divide in Laredo, with younger Democrats energized by Cisneros and older Democrats remaining loyal to Cuellar.
But the divide isn’t just generational. While Cuellar boasts plenty of business support, labor groups have lined up behind Cisneros. That includes the state AFL-CIO, which endorsed her earlier this year.
“I have not heard one time from the congressman for any kind of town hall meeting, any outreach to the community,” said Linda Chavez-Thompson, a longtime labor leader from San Antonio who lives in the district. “And I’ve been his constituent since 2007.”
“I now receive at least two to three brochures a day from him,” she said.
Cuellar’s campaign says he holds regular neighborhood office hours, spends 20 hours a week commuting to and from D.C. and made 543 appearances in the district last year.
One piece of pro-Cuellar mail called Cisneros a “NYC Candidate” and showed her next to pictures of “NYC Pizza” and a “NYC Bagel.”
“Jessica Cisneros is bringing New York flavor to Texas,” it read.
It’s part of the campaign’s effort to brand Cisneros as an outsider, though she was born and raised in Laredo. Cisneros left Laredo to attend the University of Texas at Austin, where she stayed through law school. She worked briefly in New York before returning to her hometown to run against the congressman for whom she once worked as an intern.
Cuellar is a well-known name in the district. He’s one of three members of his family on the ballot in Laredo. His brother, Martin, is sheriff and his sister, Rosie, is tax assessor. Both are seeking reelection. His campaign touts endorsements from more than 200 former and current local Democratic officeholders.
Cisneros says it’s Cuellar who is out of touch with the district. She’s branded him “Trump’s favorite Democrat” because of his penchant for crossing the aisle and voting with Republicans. She’s repeatedly called for him to debate her, which he has declined to do.
“If he really was one of us, he wouldn’t be afraid to put himself out there,” she said.