Monica De La Cruz retains GOP management of South Texas congressional district

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U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz defeated Democrat Michelle Vallejo on Tuesday, in keeping with The Related Press, securing a second time period representing Texas’ fifteenth Congressional District and sustaining GOP management of a key seat anchored within the historically Democratic Rio Grande Valley.

The competition was a rematch from two years in the past, when De La Cruz simply captured the district after it had been redrawn the earlier yr to favor Republicans. This time, nationwide Democrats devoted extra consideration and assets to the race. However in the long run, De La Cruz nonetheless simply outspent Vallejo and pulled off a win along with her platform targeted on securing the border, lowering inflation and defending power jobs.

“In 2022, we made history, and tonight’s outcome confirms that the change we brought to this community is here to stay,” De La Cruz mentioned.

She added that South Texas “deserves more than benchwarmers in Washington” and promised that she was “just getting started” in Congress.

De La Cruz fended off assault advertisements claiming she would jeopardize Medicare and Social Safety primarily based on her proximity to efforts supported by different Republicans — a cost she hotly disputed. Vallejo additionally took intention at De La Cruz over her help for Texas’ abortion ban, as Democrats hoped to grab on backlash sparked by high-profile instances of ladies leaving the state to obtain medical look after life-threatening being pregnant issues.

De La Cruz largely prevented the difficulty, eradicating a “Pro-Life” part from her marketing campaign web site’s points web page, although she acknowledged she helps “exceptions for women facing heartbreaking circumstances.”

The district is anchored in Hidalgo County and its greatest metropolis, McAllen, alongside the U.S.-Mexico border. It runs via rural South Texas as much as Guadalupe County east of San Antonio.

As was the case in 2022, Republicans in Texas and Washington, D.C., noticed the race as an necessary benchmark of their efforts to proceed gaining floor amongst Latino voters and reducing into Democrats’ maintain on South Texas, a area that they had lengthy dominated till latest cycles.

GOP Home Speaker Mike Johnson traveled to the district to marketing campaign with De La Cruz, and he or she landed high-profile talking slots this yr, delivering the Spanish-language response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union tackle and talking on the Republican Nationwide Conference.

In the meantime, Democrats hoped to reassert themselves in South Texas by reclaiming Texas’ fifteenth District — although they’ve additionally famous that Republicans gained the higher hand by redrawing the district to fold in additional conservative areas close to San Antonio, tons of of miles and several other counties away from the border.

Nonetheless, De La Cruz had made inroads within the Democratic stronghold of Hidalgo County, the place many of the district lives. She misplaced the county by about 13 factors in 2022 after dropping it by greater than 20 factors the cycle earlier than, when she narrowly didn’t unseat the Democratic incumbent on the time, Vicente Gonzalez. This time, Vallejo led in Hidalgo County by simply 4 proportion factors via early voting — reflecting a significant shift to the suitable all through South Texas.

After GOP state lawmakers redrew the district in order that former President Donald Trump would have carried it by 3 proportion factors in 2020, Gonzalez shifted to run in a neighboring district, resulting in an open 2022 race wherein De La Cruz defeated Vallejo by an 8.5-point margin.

Undeterred, Vallejo noticed a path to deliver the seat again below Democratic management this cycle, beginning along with her newfound help from nationwide Democrats who had declined to significantly spend money on the race two years in the past. The Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee put the district on its early goal listing and gave Vallejo mentorship and assets via its Crimson to Blue program for candidates it deems aggressive. And Home Majority PAC, an excellent PAC linked to Home Democratic management, ran advertisements supporting Vallejo in English and Spanish as a part of a $2 million advert reservation in South Texas — a pointy distinction to when the group pulled its reservations from Vallejo’s race in 2022.

Moreover, Vallejo moderated her message after embracing a extra overtly progressive set of points final cycle, together with the single-payer well being care system referred to as Medicare for All. She dropped that from her platform this time round and ran an advert that confirmed her standing shoulder to shoulder with regulation enforcement officers whereas vowing to “get serious” about fixing “chaos at the border” — sparking backlash from progressive supporters who mentioned they felt betrayed by her shifting posture on immigration.