Bobby Pulido Builds Texas 15th District Campaign Around Quinceañeras In Rio Grande Valley

Bobby Pulido, a two-time Latin Grammy winner and Democratic candidate for Congress in Texas’s 15th Congressional District, has built his campaign around quinceañeras in the Rio Grande Valley, where he says he is “one of the Democrats' big bets to win in November's midterm elections.”

“EFE Gonzales (Texas), January 24 (EFE) - Dressed in his traditional cowboy hat, boots, and denim jeans, the Texan singer Bobby Pulido took the stage and grabbed the microphone”

ABC

The Houston Chronicle describes Pulido as an Edinburg native who turned a youthful-looking 53 a few days ago and is running to represent the 15th Congressional District after routing a primary opponent in March, with his quinceañera-focused strategy drawing attention from major national outlets.

ABC

In the Houston Chronicle’s account, Pulido’s campaign manager Abel Prado says the quinceañera focus was “pure happenstance” after he saw a video of the De La Cruz campaign remarking that the election “isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera. It’s about who you trust with your family’s future.”

The same Houston Chronicle piece says Pulido has received more than 3,000 invitations and attended as many as seven in one night, and it reports that of more than 1,800 people encountered at quinceañeras, 68 percent are registered voters but only 8.35 percent have a voting history.

El País frames the political stakes by saying Pulido’s candidacy is part of Democrats’ effort to win swing districts under Republican control, with the party hoping to wrest from Republicans control of at least one chamber of Congress and even impeach Donald Trump.

Pulido’s quinceañera message has been met with sharp attacks, and the New York Post highlights a 2020 appearance on the Youtube comedy-and-music show Zagar Desde el Bar where it says Pulido laughed as host José Luis Zagar made vulgar remarks about women.

In the New York Post’s account, Zagar tells Pulido, “It flaps like a seal,” and the piece says Pulido “cackling loudly” and made a farting sound as he responded to the joke.

El País

The Houston Chronicle reports that Pulido’s campaign manager Abel Prado worried that “gringos” might have been offended by the De La Cruz campaign’s quinceañera remark and that the campaign had “a bit of leeway” given the district’s ethnic percentages.

El País adds that Pulido’s Republican rival, Mónica de la Cruz, attacked him in March with the line: “This isn't about who will sing at your niece's quinceañera. It's about who you put the future of your family in the hands of.”

El País also describes Pulido’s response strategy, saying that within days he announced he would perform at quinceañera celebrations he was invited to and that he says he has received more than 3,000 requests.

Beyond the race itself, El País situates Pulido’s bid in Democrats’ broader midterm calculations, saying the House seemed within reach because Democrats only needed to win three more seats to capture a majority of the 435.

“EDINBURG – On a Saturday morning before the sun is up, I back out of our Austin driveway to begin a 300-mile trip southward to this rapidly growing Rio Grande Valley city of more than a hundred thousand residents”

Houston Chronicle

El País also says the Senate is a harder task because only about a third of the seats are up, and it reports that Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer says he is optimistic about achieving it in New Hampshire, Alaska, North Carolina and Ohio.

The same El País piece links the political environment to court actions, saying the Supreme Court issued last week a ruling that “practically, voids the 1965 law protecting minority electoral representation,” and it adds that Southern Republican states rushed to redraw district boundaries.

In the Houston Chronicle’s narrative of the 15th Congressional District, it describes how South Texas politics has had outsized influence through the years, including a 1948 Democratic primary in which county voting officials produced a mysterious Box 13 containing 200 extra votes that helped Lyndon Baines Johnson win by an 87-vote “landslide” out of nearly a million votes cast statewide.

El País closes the loop on the stakes by noting that Democrats are buoyant about their prospects and that online betting house Polymarket assigns an 83% probability that the opposition will win the House majority, versus 17% that Republicans keep it.