Bobby Pulido’s House campaign goes platinum
How one Tejano musician could flip a Trump district back to blue
James Talarico is not your typical Democrat, and yet the Presbyterian seminarian and former middle school teacher — who once flipped a red district in the Texas Legislature — has handedly won the Senate Democratic primary against Jasmine Crockett.
Only Talarico wasn’t alone in victory on Tuesday night. Tejano musician Bobby Pulido won the Democratic primary in Texas’ 15th congressional district. The two candidates campaigned together during the primary season, as each of them did their part to build a big tent that welcomed Independent and Republican voters alike.
Neither Pulido nor Talarico fit the bill of who many may think of when they picture a typical ‘Democrat’ (and that’s a good thing.) But they each made the choice to look past labels and reach as many Texans as they could.
They are two of the many rising stars who best represent the future of the Democratic Party — as well as its ability to embrace supermajority thinking, reach beyond a shrinking base, and choose instead to bring in new voices, new ideas, and new people. A new push toward a big-tent, populist approach that invites those who have been turned off by the national Democratic brand’s cultural and political image.
Trouble in the RGV
When Bobby Pulido announced his primary campaign, some were skeptical that a heterodox candidate and political newcomer could lead the pack in an otherwise competitive race against Ada Cuellar, a local doctor who had been endorsed by Crockett. The singer, who came to fame in the 90s after the success of his singles Desvelado and Se Murió de Amor, had never run for office before. He was untested in the political arena.
What pundits had failed to consider, however, was the dire and shifting electoral trends facing his district’s current and soon-to-be boundaries. In 2018, a majority of voters in Texas’ 15th district backed the Democratic candidate in four out of the five races for statewide office — including Beto O’Rourke over Senator Ted Cruz — while only narrowly supporting Governor Greg Abbott’s reelection.
Pulido’s district had even voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Flash forward to 2024 and the district all but abandoned national and statewide Democratic candidates, instead shifting rightward to Republicans and Donald Trump. The incumbent, Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz, became the first Republican to represent the district and the second to represent a Rio Grande Valley county in decades.
As he advances from the primary, Pulido will have to dig his heels in deep by embracing the heterodox nature of his campaign, his distance from DC insiders, and his willingness to buck the party line.
The Texas Observer noted of Pulido:
He believes cultural conservatism — including debates over gender identity — resonated with many Valley voters deeply rooted in church, family, and a Tejano identity, while shielding them from the overt discrimination that Latinos face in other communities where they are the minority.
The now-nominated Democratic candidate decried the use of the term ‘Latinx’ and has called himself “pro-life,” but that “it’s not my place to tell somebody else what they can do.” He campaigns on immigration reform and argues that ICE is ripping apart families — without demanding to abolish or replace federal immigration enforcement like candidates on the left.
“You barely mention Donald Trump,” journalist Jorge Ramos told Pulido during an interview last November. “I’m not running against Donald Trump. I’m running against policies I don’t like — that hurt my people,” he replied. “The reality is that I’m going to have to have a lot of people that voted for Trump to vote for me.”
“I don’t have to go [to the center]. I’m already there.”
Many Democratic voters living in deeply liberal urban districts would probably shiver at Pulido’s cultural moderation. But those voters don’t live in suburban and rural neighborhoods in the Rio Grande Valley or by the southern border.
These towns are home to an overwhelming, or often nearly unanimous, majority of Latinos, including Latino Catholics who are traditionally more conservative on issues such as abortion. Pulido has also opted to host ranch halls, informal music events and barbecues, in part because they reflect the kind of social gatherings the region is accustomed to outside of politics.
Different is good. A big tent is meant to cover different geographies, constituents, and ways of life. That can also be said of rural, more conservative Democrats and their attitudes toward coastal liberals.
The road ahead
Texas Democrats have not won statewide in 30 years. They now have a serious opportunity in James Talarico and his supermajority coalition. The same goes for Bobby Pulido and his campaign to reverse the rightward shift among voters in this part of the Valley and up to Guadalupe and Wilson counties.
What comes next is even more critical. Both Talarico and Pulido must continue expanding their reach to voters who are either discouraged by the political system or cannot recall the last time they voted blue. It’s a tall order — but it’s absolutely achievable. Talarico said it best when asked about his own broad coalition:
“You have to both increase black and brown turnout. You’ve got to increase youth turnout, which is what our campaign is doing in this primary, and you’ve got to peel off independents and some Republicans. We’re not in a position as Texas Democrats to be closing off lanes to victory, we have to pursue all those lanes simultaneously.”
Bobby Pulido ran a primary campaign by embracing the simple fact that, like his district, he himself held a variety of mixed views, including on culture. But he also embraced a big-tent, populist message. In doing so, Pulido has now paved the way for a competitive general election.
Did you all give up on throwing the LGBTQ people under the bus?