Seven candidates are hoping to defeat U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar in the 2022 elections and become the representative for U.S. House District 28 which includes Starr County, Laredo, and stretches up to east of San Antonio.
Those running include progressive candidates and an even larger group of Republican candidates hoping to take advantage of the strong support for former President Donald J. Trump that materialized among South Texas voters in the 2020 elections.
The candidates running in the Democratic Primary include Cuellar, the nine-term incumbent from Laredo. A former lawyer and licensed customs broker, Cuellar previously served as a state representative and then was appointed Texas Secretary of State by then-Gov. Rick Perry.
Cuellar is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate members of Congress, and is considerate one of the most conservative members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
He is being challenged by two progressive candidates for the Democratic nomination.
The first to announce was Tannya Benavides, a former teacher and community organizer from Laredo. Her issues include protecting worker rights, expanding Medicare to increase access to health care, funding equitable access to education as well as supporting universal and free daycare and preschool for working-class families.
Benavides also supports immigration reform that focus on a “humane immigration system” and addressing the root causes of migration while opposing the construction of a border wall.
Jessica Cisneros, an immigration lawyer also from Laredo, is launching a second bid to unseat Cuellar after she came close in 2020.
Cisneros lists Medicare for all, immigrants’ rights, reproductive health care as some of her top priorities.
During the 2020 Democratic Primary, Cisneros ran a hard-fought campaign, losing to Cuellar by just a few percentage points. She received 36,144 votes, or about 48%, while Cuellar received 38,834 votes, or just under 52%.
On the Republican side, there are five candidates hoping to turn flip the district.
Among them is Sandra Linn Whitten, from Laredo, the Republican nominee in 2020 who faced off against Cuellar in the general election. She’s running on border security, increasing jobs, addressing social issues without the involvement of the federal government, the ability for doctors and patients to make their own choices when it comes to health care, and enacting term limits.
Steven Fowler, a U.S. Air Force veteran from Universal City, pointed to immigration as the issue that prompted him to run for Congress. On his campaign website, he also stresses the importance of preventing Cisneros from winning the seat, comparing Cisneros to U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Ed Cabrera, from Linn, owns and operates a ranch outside of San Isidro. He was formerly a manufacturing executive for General Electric in Mexico and worked on Wall Street for 35 years for firms that included Merrill Lynch, Paine Webber, and Raymond James and Associates, according to his website. He stated he is running to combat government “over-regulation” and “over-taxation.” He said he is also concerned with government interference, the “deterioration of moral values in society,” and immigration.
Rolando Rodriguez, from Hidalgo, filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission earlier this month, though details of his platform were not immediately available.
Willie Vasquez Ng, a former police officer with the San Antonio Police Department. He went on to become the chief criminal investigator for the Bexar County District Attorney’s office. He also founded a security services company.
His key issues include Second Amendment right to bear arms; immigration, vowing to close the border and complete construction of a border wall; standing with law enforcement by blocking efforts to defund the police; supporting low taxes; and rolling back regulations on energy companies.
None of the candidates have filed to run with the Texas Secretary of State’s office, according to information available on the state website. The deadline to file is Dec. 13 at 6 p.m.
Both the Democratic and Republican Primary elections are scheduled for March 1.
Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to accurately reflect the District 28 boundaries.
