Can a Tejano Star Restore Dems’ Power in South Texas? 

Bobby Pulido descended a staircase bedecked in flowers to face the quinceañara in her shimmering blue ball gown. Her magnificent hoop skirt swayed as the Tejano star-turned-South Texas Democratic congressional candidate launched into a rendition of “Hermoso Cariño.” It was Pulido’s second quince of four that night, part of a marathon run of birthdays, weddings, and even baptisms that have become the cornerstone of his campaign trail strategy. He finished with his hit song “Desvelado,” led the birthday girl by the hand around the dance floor, and gifted her a pink “Make Quinceañaras Great Again” hat.

After 30 years of performing across the United States and Mexico, the two-time Latin Grammy winner officially announced in September 2025 his bid to run for the 15th Congressional District, a newly remodeled majority-Latino South Texas district that’s anchored in McAllen and stretches north all the way to New Braunfels outside San Antonio. Republican Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz flipped that then-open seat back in 2022 and has held onto it in 2024 despite it being one of Dems’ top targets in the state.

The conservative Blue Dog Democrats PAC poured nearly $1 million into Pulido’s primary race, betting that the strength of his name recognition, cultural influence, and deep roots throughout the Rio Grande Valley would help to win back the seat after a Trump-fueled wave among Hispanic voters in 2024. In March, he easily defeated the more progressive yet little-known Ada Cuellar, an emergency physician with a law degree who largely self-funded her bid.

His slogan, “Not team red. Not team blue. Team you,” anchors Pulido as the Democrats’ familiar, moderate champion to reclaim the 15th from De La Cruz. He’s determined to podcast, sing, and dance his way to Congress, brushing off every scandal that seeks to poison his good-vibes campaign.

De La Cruz is the first Republican and Latina to represent the district, thanks to GOP gerrymandering that set up her successful run in 2022 as the 15th was redrawn to be much redder, prompting the incumbent Democrat Vicente Gonzalez to move to a neighboring district. But, in Texas Republicans’ bid to deliver five more House seats to Trump in yet another round of redistricting last year, the district has since been redrawn yet again, putting her on relatively more uncertain ground.

“Eighty percent of that district she hasn’t represented in the last two two election cycles. They really don’t know her,” said Jon Taylor, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio. “She’s as much of a challenger—a non-incumbent—as an incumbent.”

Combined with Trump’s harsh immigration enforcement and recklessness with the economy, Taylor believes “this is a decidedly toss-up race.” In June, leaked audio from a De La Cruz fundraising event revealed that her own internal polling put her neck and neck with Pulido. “We ran the poll, and what we found was that I am up by only one point,” De La Cruz told the room, according to Punchbowl News. “One point. And I said, ‘Oh, sweet Lord Jesus.’ Right? That’s not good.

While he’s known as a prominent musical performer, Pulido is no stranger to politics. He grew up immersed in the Rio Grande Valley political scene; his uncle served as a county judge and Pulido participated in a prestigious civic leadership class as a boy. In the first episode of his Ranch Hall Podcast, Pulido said campaigning with Congressman Gonzalez in 2022 inspired his own decision to run. As a young man he dropped out of college at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, where he was pursuing a political science degree, to become a full-time musician. Now, he feels he’s picking up where he left off.

Pulido has staked himself out as a moderate-to-conservative Democrat, joining the ranks of South Texas Blue Dogs like his friend Gonzalez, who now represents the 34th District in the Valley, and Congressman Henry Cuellar in Laredo.

“With all due respect to the previous Democratic candidate, she might have been a little too progressive for the district,” Taylor said of Michelle Vallejo, who ran and lost against De La Cruz in 2022 and 2024. “That is not the case with Bobby Pulido.”

Pulido’s podcast has featured a wide range of friends, politicians, and other influential figures in South Texas across the political divide. He connected with his friends from the Living Large Theater podcast over their shared cultural conservatism and distaste for young lefties. In the first Ranch Hall episode, Pulido criticized Biden for betraying his centrist reputation by surrounding himself “with a lot of young progressives that were ideologically molded in East and West Coast Ivy League schools.” He argued that South Texans have always supported Democrats because “there was never a progressive ideology” with those local politicians.

It’s true that South Texas has, both in the Texas Legislature and in Washington, been historically represented by relatively conservative Dems, though there have been growing attempts to unseat those incumbents in recent years. . In recent cycles, Cuellar, the most powerful and prominent of these South Texas pols, twice narrowly fended off primary challenges by Jessica Cisneros, a young progressive backed by the insurgent group Justice Democrats.

In May, Bernie-backed progressive Julio Salinas won the Democratic primary for Texas House District 41, squarely within Congressional District 15, against an establishment-backed moderate. Salinas will still need to defeat a Republican opponent in November in this competitive district.

Pulido and Gonzalez are among 13 Democrats who signed the Promise to America (PTA), a pledge to rebuild voter trust through a set of moderate principles: capitalism, safety, fiscal responsibility, effective government, and patriotism. Shortly after, a slate of candidates from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) won primaries in New York, igniting an intraparty feud between moderates and leftists. 

In an interview at his campaign headquarters in Pharr, Pulido said he felt uncomfortable with the ensuing social media battle between the DSA and the PTA bloc. “I still believe in what I signed,” Pulido said. “I just don’t believe in demonizing other people in my party. We’ve gotta work together.”

He believes that the current system needs reform to protect free markets and balance the budget. He wants to hold certain corporations and billionaires accountable—not with a wealth tax but by closing tax loopholes and strengthening antitrust laws. Pulido said his top priority is lowering healthcare costs, and he’s a strong supporter of the Break Up Big Medicine Act. While he does not support Medicare for All—a top priority of the party’s progressive wing—he said he would support lowering the eligible age from 65 to 55.

On foreign policy, Pulido said he was resolutely against Trump’s war on Iran, yet sounded aloof on the debate over the U.S providing arms and aid to Israel. “I don’t have as much information that a congressman is privy to,” Pulido said when asked where he stands on sending arms to Israel. “I just wish there was peace between the two, and I feel like I blame this administration for not being strong-willed enough.”

Pulido has largely focused his attacks on Congresswoman De La Cruz’s fealty to President Donald Trump and her support of his “One Big Beautiful Bill,” a budget package that radically increased ICE funding while cutting SNAP and health insurance benefits, which have thrown many Texans off the benefit and insurance rolls. Trump’s megabill also allocated funding for the construction of a border wall through the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, which is in the district Neither De La Cruz nor Pulido have publicly commented on the matter. When asked by the Observer, Pulido responded, “I haven’t said anything about it, but I obviously oppose it.” De La Cruz did not respond to a request for comment.

Pulido said he is opposed to demilitarizing the border, but he believes that a secure immigration system can be achieved “without destroying families and our local economy in the process.” He has called out the “cruelty and corruption” of for-profit detention centers and immigration arrest quotas. Unlike Gonzalez and Cuellar, Pulido said he would not have approved the ICE funding back in January—just weeks after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. Pulido has publicly demanded the release of South Texans from migrant detention centers, including a Catholic nun and a youth mariachi group. (De La Cruz also joined calls for the release of Sister Letty Ugboaja.)

Meanwhile, the imperiled incumbent has slowly scaled up her attacks on Pulido. In March, she quipped that Pulido is more qualified to perform “at your niece’s quinceañera” than run for Congress. Pulido was quick to capitalize on the attention.

“A quinceañera isn’t just a pachanga, it’s a right of passage that brings family and neighbors together, and honestly, that’s exactly what this campaign is about,” Pulido said in a video on Facebook. He opened up an event page, which has received thousands of performance requests. Pulido said he’s managed to appear at over 50 quinces thus far. He spends weekends driving all around the Valley from one event to the next.

“I know for her and her friends, it was something special to have him here,” said Tiffany Tamez, whose daughter was also celebrating a quince. “But not only that, we know what it is that he’s standing for. He’s standing for family, he’s standing for us Hispanics.”

In recent months, Pulido has faced more serious accusations that he willfully ignored a former bandmate’s long criminal history. Frankie Caballero, who played off and on as Pulido’s accordionist for nearly 30 years, was imprisoned in 2014 for indecent sexual contact with an 8-year-old girl. Upon his release four years later, Caballero was welcomed back into the band. The story first broke in the right-wing tabloid New York Post and was quickly seized upon by his opponent.

De La Cruz accused Pulido of knowingly endangering children by bringing Caballero to perform on tour and at a middle school benefit. Pulido has vigorously denied that he knew anything about the accordionist’s sex crimes, stating that because the accordion player was a contract worker, they never conducted a background check on Caballero. He wrote off the scandal as politically motivated. “I think it’s desperation. She’s in a Trump +18 district, and it wasn’t even supposed to be close,” Pulido told the Observer.

But the headlines have kept on coming. Opposition operatives and news outlets have been digging up decade-old tweets, revealing comments that ranged from suggestive and crude to outright slurs. Pulido responded with a statement on Monday that played most of it off as humor and mistranslation. “Clickbait is a hell of a drug,” he said. “Some of those old tweets, they went too far. That’s my bad, and I’ve apologized.”

Still, for many Tejanos, Pulido remains a cultural icon and a musical inspiration. On July 17, the local Creative Arts Studio hosted an homage to Pulido at Valley View High School in Hidalgo. Kids dressed like vaqueros and played accordions, squeezing out the recognizable melodies of Pulido’s famous tunes. He joined the young musicians on stage and bestowed them with some advice. “Music is heart,” Pulido told the students in Spanish. “You have to do this for the love of music. Don’t do things just to be famous.”

Tamez said it’s that type of humility that makes Pulido a great candidate and ambassador for the community. “I’ve known Bobby’s music since I was probably in diapers,” she said. “He’s using his fame in a positive way, and he’s still a down-to-earth, humble guy.”

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