(AFP) – Formerly a Democratic stronghold, the predominantly Hispanic region of southern Texas has swung rightward in recent years, helping Republicans to a narrow majority in Congress and highlighting a broader shift in Latino voter sentiment. Now, with control of Congress up for grabs in the November 3 midterm elections, Democrats are hoping a star singer running for office will woo voters back.
Latin Grammy-winner Bobby Pulido, known as the “Golden Boy” of Tejano music, is vying to flip Texas’s 15th congressional district, which stretches from the outskirts of San Antonio south to the Mexico border. With a population that is over 80 percent Latino, the district has been represented since 2023 by Republican Monica De La Cruz. She, like Pulido, grew up in the border area known as the Rio Grande Valley — but her father was not a Tejano music pioneer.
Now 53, Pulido has mostly turned his focus from music to politics during the campaign, but he took to the stage at a rally Sunday in the city of Weslaco alongside the band Los Tigres del Norte, performing their hit song “La Puerta Negra” (The Black Door). De La Cruz has hit Pulido for his lack of experience, arguing the election was not about choosing a singer for a quinceanera coming-of-age party, but whom voters should trust with their family’s future. Pulido took the dig in stride, offering to perform under the banner “Make Quinceaneras Great Again,” a parody of Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Pulido has tied or taken a slight lead over De La Cruz in polls, as high gas prices caused by Trump’s war with Iran and heavy-handed immigration raids push Latino voters away from supporting Republicans. “Let’s break a record and send a message that they can’t mess with us anymore. We are good people in the Rio Grande Valley,” Pulido told the crowd of thousands at Sunday’s rally. In today’s polarized US politics, Pulido has aimed to bring people together across the aisle for support, sporting a campaign slogan that says: “I’m not team Red or team Blue. South Texas, I’m team You.”
“Families stopped talking right now because somebody voted for Trump and somebody didn’t,” he said. “I don’t care what happened in the past. We need to look at the future.” One of the big focus points of his campaign has been dealing with migration along the US-Mexico border. “I believe we can secure the border without destroying families and our local economy in the process,” Pulido said in a campaign video.
Rally attendee Joe Jimenez, 44, told AFP he had previously voted for De La Cruz but now supports Pulido. “He’s going to do a good job not because he’s a singer, it’s because he’s from here and he not only represents us but has gone through a lot of things that we have done,” Jimenez said, adding that he felt De La Cruz “let us down.” A 2016 video of Pulido has generated controversy, in which he pretends to urinate on Trump’s star along the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The candidate has said the gesture was a joke performed with a water bottle.
Margarita Ramirez, a 49-year-old from Pulido’s hometown of Edinburg, said she was supporting the singer. “He has been very honest in his work as a musician, and so why would he not be honest in his work as a politician? He’s not someone seeking to cause scandals. He’s a family man,” she told AFP.
– Moisés ÁVILA
© 2024 AFP
