EDINBURG, Texas — Election Day was only 14 days away, but Rep. Monica De La Cruz wasn’t, technically, campaigning. She was touring affordable housing in her district alongside a Cabinet secretary instead.
The Republican is up for reelection against Tejano music star Bobby Pulido in a majority-Latino district where President Donald Trump made stunning gains the last time he ran. How De La Cruz navigates the next stretch could determine how both parties approach Latino voters nationally in the coming years.
She faces significant headwinds.
Voters who backed her in the past aren’t particularly loyal to either party and are frustrated by what they see as inaction and Trump’s lack of success, after voting for him enthusiastically just two years ago. Trump’s popularity with Latino voters has deteriorated, according to a Pew Research Center poll released earlier this month, which found his approval rating with the group down from 38% in February 2025 to 24% among those surveyed.
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De La Cruz, however, demurred when asked if she was worried about losing the inroads Republicans have made with Latino voters in South Texas.
“This is one of the most competitive races across the nation, and what I’ve decided to do is to focus on my race and what I’m able to bring to the table,” she told The Washington Sun.
De La Cruz isn’t only fighting against a tough national environment for Republicans. Pulido has proven himself to be a formidable opponent running on his celebrity, with an uncanny ability to generate national headlines.
“The [Rio Grande Valley] is the bellwether, so what happens in Texas-15, what happens in the RGV, will set the narrative for investment in Latino voters in the future,” said Melissa Morales, the president of the Somos PAC, a Democratic-aligned group that invests in increasing Latino voter turnout across the country.
Is the Republican Party’s breakthrough with Latino voters a fragile coalition built around Trump’s promises of bringing prices down and improving the economy, or something more permanent?
De La Cruz’s approach suggests she’s not banking on the latter: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner’s visit to South Texas this week to help highlight De La Cruz’s work on affordable housing gave the Republican incumbent a chance to spotlight her record.
The event also put her front and center on an issue that resonates with Latino voters: housing affordability, a major concern according to a Pew study.
“I am so proud to have the secretary here because what it shows is our commitment to affordable housing and families, right here in the Rio Grande Valley, being able to achieve their American dream, which is owning their first home,” De La Cruz told reporters after the tour of homes.
The district has since been redrawn in an effort to help Republicans pick up seats, but in 2024, Trump carried Texas’ 15th Congressional District by nearly 18 percentage points, while De La Cruz won a second term in Congress. For how much the president is hanging over the race, De La Cruz was studious about not bringing him up.
She did not mention Trump during her official office stops on Tuesday and has pitched herself to voters as someone who would fight against his administration’s immigration policy.
She put out an ad last month featuring the story of a DACA recipient who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The ad suggested that De La Cruz helped release the man from detention.
“I have been direct with leadership from Day 1,” she told The Sun. “I have told leadership that enforcement must focus on the cartels and the criminals, not hardworking families that are trying to navigate the very complex immigration system that we have.”
She’s not only focused on policy issues. She has also made a case against Pulido by accusing him of protecting a former bandmate, Frankie Caballero, a registered sex offender who was convicted of indecent sexual contact with a child. Pulido has repeatedly denied knowing about the conviction.
Pulido, in turn, has accused De La Cruz of bending to the Trump administration and not fighting for South Texans. He has framed the administration as being too tough on migrants and responsible for the increased cost of living.
But he’s also holding the Democratic Party at arm’s length, pitching himself as someone who would fight for South Texans over the party.
“We don’t care about parties down here. We don’t,” Pulido told The Sun in an interview before a concert-turned-campaign rally on Saturday. “People care more about the candidate than they do about a party platform, and I think that’s where the rest of the country is. That’s kind of where we’ve always been.”
The arena for his farewell concert on Saturday was packed: Thousands of fans in cowboy boots and hats streamed into Bert Ogden Arena in Edinburg, holding micheladas, margaritas, nachos dripping with melted cheese and boxes of popcorn.
They came to hear Pulido perform his signature hit, “Desvelado,” one last time, but also for his pitch on why he should be the next representative of Texas’s 15th Congressional District.
He focused on affordability, like many other Democrats on the trail this fall. Pulido, an Edinburg native, also pointed to his roots in South Texas, mentioning an uncle who was a former county judge and another who was a former prosecutor, for why he should be elected to office.
One voter who attended, Orly Rodriguez, said he plans to vote for Pulido because of his campaign promises.
“To me, it’s not about, you know, Democrat, Republican,” Rodriguez told the Sun. “To me, it’s about the individual, and I’m focusing on him personally.”
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