The fate of Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) will be decided in less than a week as he is going up against Democrat Jessica Cisneros, backed by far-left Democrats across the country, on March 1 in the country’s first primary elections for the midterm elections.
With less than a week left before the primaries, Cuellar is fighting in one of the toughest primary battles, becoming one of the must-watch primaries races next Tuesday. As Politico wrote, if Cisneros successfully topples Cuellar in the Democrat primary, it would trigger a once-in-a-generation shakeup for border district politics.
Leading up to the election, Cuellar — who recently had a “court-authorized” FBI raid of his house and has insisted he did nothing wrong but will cooperate with the authorities in the investigation — has seen droves of far-left Democrats lining up to back Cisneros instead of himself.
Some of the Democrats have even descended on the district to show their face, such as the so-called Squad member herself, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), hoping Cisneros successfully primary’s Cuellar and joins the ranks of far-left members in Congress.
Politico also indicated that Cuellar, ahead of the primary, has tried to “saturate the race with some of the same messages that the national GOP has used to smear liberals like Cisneros, warning against a rising left that wants to defund the police and slash border enforcement.” However, Cisneros has brushed off those attacks.
“I think people have this preconceived notion of what it means to be running as a progressive,” Cisneros, an immigration attorney based in Laredo, said in an interview. “It’s healthcare and jobs. That’s literally our bread and butter, and what we’re talking about at the doors.”
However, this is happening when a YouGov poll from earlier this month showed that a generic congressional Republican leads a generic congressional Democrat by two points on the ballot.
In addition to all of this, many Republicans have argued that if Cisneros wins, the district would indeed be defeated by a Republican challenger due to her being too far-left in a year where Republicans appear to have the upper hand.
The University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, which keeps tabs on the vulnerability of congressional districts, moved Cuellar’s district from a “Likely Democratic” district to a “Leans Democratic” district. This indicated that not only Cuellar is in trouble, but the district is more vulnerable and can be won by a Republican opponent.
The analysis from the Center for Politics suggested that Cuellar’s investigation, even though he doubled down and claimed to have “committed no wrongdoing,” puts him in a weaker stage, and if Cisneros were to primary him successfully, she would be a weaker candidate against a Republican.
Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter.
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