Anti-abortion Cuellar still backed by top Democrats
House Democratic leaders, facing pressure from abortion rights advocates to drop their support for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar ahead of his primary runoff, are standing behind the anti-abortion Laredo Democrat as he fights to retain his seat against progressive attorney Jessica Cisneros.
Rallying with Cuellar in San Antonio, House Majority Whip James Clyburn — the No. 3 House Democrat and one of the party’s most influential figures — reaffirmed his support for Cuellar, days after a leaked draft opinion signaled the U.S. Supreme Court is set to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.
Clyburn, addressing a crowd of several dozen people at an outdoor restaurant near downtown San Antonio on Wednesday night, acknowledged he disagrees with Cuellar on certain issues but pointed to Cuellar’s key role — as one of his chief deputy whips — in wrangling votes to pass numerous key issues.
Clyburn told reporters after the rally that Democrats are a “big-tent party” with room for a member like Cuellar who opposes abortion.
“I don’t believe we ought to have a litmus test
in the Democratic Party,” Clyburn said. “This whole notion that you’ve got to agree with everybody on everything is pretty sophomoric to me.”
News of the draft opinion, published Monday by Politico, sparked calls for Clyburn and Speaker Nancy Pelosi to pull their endorsements for Cuellar, who was the only House Democrat to oppose a bill last year that would have codified the right to an abortion.
Cuellar has openly opposed abortion for years, citing his Catholic faith. In a statement this week, he said he opposes an “outright ban” on abortion and supports exceptions for “rape, incest and danger to the life of the mother.” (Only pregnancies that threaten the life of the mother are exempt from a Texas law passed last spring that would impose a blanket ban on abortions if Roe v. Wade is struck down.)
Ahead of Cuellar’s rally, Cisneros called on House Democratic leadership to withdraw their support for Cuellar, whom she called “the last anti-choice Democrat in the House.” Notably, Pelosi called the draft opinion “an abomination, one of the worst and most damaging decisions in modern history,” while Clyburn said it was “alarming” and “beyond the pale” for politicians to control women’s “constitutional right to make choices about their body.”
After the rally, Cuellar said he did not know whether the abortion issue would affect his May 24 primary against Cisneros. He argued that Cisneros, an immigration attorney who wants to create a “just and humane immigration system,” could face some blowback on the issue of immigration, as President Joe Biden prepares to lift Title 42, the COVID-ERA public health order used to expel over 2 million immigrants at the border.
Cuellar in March was one of two Democrats to sign on to a letter, along with 20 Republicans, urging Biden to reconsider. Cisneros, who had previously called for an end to Title 42, said the policy produced “cruel and inhuman treatment” of asylum seekers turned away at the border.
Cuellar did not directly address the abortion issue onstage Wednesday.