U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar will be heading into a runoff election against progressive challenger Jessica Cisneros after she nabbed enough support to keep the embattled congressman from receiving more than 50% of the votes during Tuesday’s primary election.
When the dust finally settled on the tight race between the two Democratic candidates, Cuellar received about 48% of the votes, while Cisneros received nearly 47% of the votes.
Tannya Benavides, an educator and progressive activist, came in third with 4.7% of the votes.
“It’s really exciting to see how our conversations on the people-centered policy that we’re running on have gotten so much momentum over the last couple of years, and we are so much closer to defeating Henry Cuellar,” Cisneros said during a news conference Wednesday.
Heading into the runoff, she said her campaign would maintain the same strategy that had gotten her this far.
“We have shown that it’s working. The problem is that obviously when you’re going up against a very entrenched incumbent that has a lot of money in the bank, our resources are very limited,” she said. “We have to be very strategic about how we’re using our resources and making a comprehensive plan to target voters.”
On Wednesday, Cuellar issued a statement expressing confidence going into the runoff.
“This Tuesday, the 28th Congressional District spoke, and we witnessed our great Democratic system at work,” Cuellar said. “After winning the most votes and showing the largest amount of support, we will now move to a runoff election on May 24th and we are confident we will win.”
He said he looked forward to once again winning the majority of votes and being the Democratic nominee for Congress.
“Thank you to God, my family, Imelda, Christy, and Catie, and all of our wonderful supporters who have done so much already these last few months, we are ready to keep going,” he added.
While a runoff between Cisneros and Cuellar is now certain, the fate of the race wasn’t so clear late Tuesday as votes continued to trickle in from Bexar County, which has the largest voter base in District 28.
Starr County also reported inaccurate results to the state, which added confusion to the race.
Those figures were not updated to reflect the correct results on the Texas Secretary of State’s website until Wednesday afternoon.
The final, unofficial, results from Starr County had Cuellar with 3,456 votes and Cisneros with 1,308 votes, according to the Starr County elections department. Benavides received 178 votes.
Cisneros, a 28-year-old immigration attorney, challenged the moderate Cuellar from the left, strongly supporting Medicare for All, abortion access, a $15 minimum wage and opposing the construction of a border wall.
Throughout the race, she received a large network of support from federal and state lawmakers, including Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, Katie Porter, D-CA, and Ayanna Pressley, D-MA.
She also obtained endorsements from more than two dozen organizations and unions, including Justice Democrats, Planned Parenthood, the Working Families Party, the United Farm Workers and Texas ALF-CIO, the state chapter of one of the largest union federations in the country.
The race only became more challenging for Cuellar after the FBI conducted a search of his home and campaign office in Laredo in January. No official reason behind the search has been disclosed, though Cuellar stated he would cooperate with any investigation.
Two of the District 28 candidates on the Republican side, Cassy Garcia and Sandra Whitten, will also head into a runoff.
Garcia, a former staff member for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, received 23.5% of the votes, while Whitten, the Republican nominee for District 28 in 2020, emerged with 18% of the votes in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
The two will face each other once again, just like on the Democratic side, because neither candidate received the 50% plus one vote needed to win outright.
The runoff election is scheduled for May 24.
