TX-15: South Texas Democrats Will Steer Party's Direction, Left or Center
The fight for the Democratic nomination to challenge Representative Monica De La Cruz, the Republican incumbent in Texas’ 15th District, gets to the struggle for the soul of the party in 2026. Democratic primary voters in Texas began voting Tuesday ahead of the March 3 primary, and their choice, like many Democrats around the country, is whether they want to push their party to the left in a year when the wind is at Democrats’ back, or elevate centrists who traditionalists say can win swing districts like the 15th in November.
The Democratic primary for the seat of Texas’ senior senator, John Cornyn, holds a similar dynamic, pitting Representative Jasmine Crockett, a firebrand intent on mobilizing the Democratic base, against State Representative James Talarico, who is appealing to the center and disaffected Republicans.
But far from the glare of that spotlight are Democratic voters in El Valle, as the Rio Grande Valley is known. And there, another question looms: Where will the Hispanic voters who flocked to President Trump in 2024 go in 2026, amid the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, and which type of candidate do they prefer?
Cine El Rey is known as the Mexican Apollo because its advocacy of Mexican cinema parallels the Apollo Theater’s advocacy of Black artists in Harlem, and inside, Dr. Cuellar, who recently added a law degree to her medical résumé, was doing some advocacy of her own. She promised to push for the dismantling of ICE and had harsh words for Democratic Party stalwarts who have made their preference for Mr. Pulido clear.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/us/politics/hispanics-democrats-midterms.html