Inside Elections<\/a> rates the 15th District represented by Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz as a Toss-up. The energy on the ground in the district, which stretches 300 miles across rural South Texas, seems to favor Tejano music star Bobby Pulido, the Democratic nominee.\u00a0<\/p>\nPulido spent the weekend with Talarico, gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinajosa, political rights activist Maria Teresa Kumar and actress Cristela Alonzo at a rally in the border city of Weslaco headlined by Los Tigres del Norte.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/27USCTEXAS-PudiloSupporters-1024x683.jpg\")
Democratic candidate supporters sit across the street from an early voting site in Goliad, Texas. (USC Annenberg Media)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe deserve a representative who will fight for us as hard as we fight for our families regardless of party,\u201d Pulido said in a recent ad, which speaks to rising costs and shows the candidate in his signature cowboy hat speaking to voters in restaurants and grocery stores.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Outside the 5,500-population town of Sinton, Ellie Harrington, a volunteer for Pulido\u2019s campaign, is optimistic about his chances. Placing signs near the San Patricio County Fairgrounds Civic Center where early voting is taking place, Harrington thinks it will be a close race. \u201cThis is again where every single vote matters,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Pulido supporters set up a tent across the street from an early voting site in Goliad and said they would be there every day. They told reporters they do get some hecklers, but also lots of people coming by to tell them they are backing the Democrat.<\/p>\n
Damien Martinez, 59, met Pulido a few months ago in Sinton. He was pleased that Pulido answered his questions on property taxes and that he \u201cdidn\u2019t dodge the question like a typical politician.\u201d A sign for Pulido stands in the window of Martinez\u2019s tax preparation business.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe himself has been a small business owner in the Valley, so he understands what it\u2019s like to work on a fixed income and live within your means,\u201d said Martinez.<\/p>\n
The 15th is not the only Texas House race Democrats are hoping to overperform, wagering that Latino voters will be as influential in November as they were in 2024 when they turned toward Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Democrat Johnny Garcia, vying for the newly redrawn 35th District, a San Antonio-area seat that favors Republicans, spent his Saturday working the crowd at the 1902 Nightclub where Talarico rallied a boisterous crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey redrew this district to silence Latino and minority voters, thinking that we were just going to shut up and not come out and vote,\u201d Garcia said in an interview. Now, voters on the ground are \u201csimply fed up and tired,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come to Texas, you better respect it,\u201d Garcia said \u201cAnd don\u2019t mess with it.\u201d Inside Elections rates his race against Republican Carlos De La Cruz, the brother of Monica De La Cruz, as Lean Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Across the state in Texas\u2019 23rd District that runs along the border and spans western San Antonio to El Paso, Republican Brandon Herrera seems pretty confident about his January plans.<\/p>\n
Herrera fielded questions about veterans\u2019 issues Saturday from a friendly audience in the back room of the Mission Ridge Range & Academy in western San Antonio. Inside Elections rates the 23rd as \u201cLikely Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/27USCTEXAS-Hererra-1024x683.jpg\")
Herrera campaigns at a gun range in San Antonio on Oct. 24. (USC Annenberg Media)<\/p>\n
Herrera said he\u2019s been working with outgoing Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy, who lost a primary race for attorney general, to line up staff for the congressional office he believes he will win. He also said he wants a coveted spot on the House Appropriations Committee \u2014 and despite that being a tough get for a would-be freshman lawmaker, the pledge has been a cornerstone of his campaign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re 22 percent of the state in one district. We need that appropriation seat here. We just don\u2019t have a population that has a tax base to be able to fund all of those things. So that\u2019s what I\u2019ve got my eye on,\u201d Herrera said. \u201cI\u2019m trying to make sure we bring that seat home, and I\u2019m working hard behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who resigned from the 23rd District in April at the start of an ethics investigation into an alleged affair, held a seat on the Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n
Herrera acknowledged it would be \u201chard to get\u201d and said his other top choices would be the Veterans Affairs or Homeland Security committees, while the Judiciary Committee would be \u201ca lot of fun. Not necessarily best for the district.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an interview, Herrera said improving services for rural veterans was his \u201cNo. 1 priority\u201d and he would consider Appropriations and Veterans Affairs committee placements as a \u201cmassive win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to figure out ways to bring competent healthcare to veterans in rural areas that have been frankly forgotten about,\u201d Herrera said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTexas values are my values. I love the state, I love this area, and I want to see it preserved for future generations to come,\u201d he added. \u201cI had to step up. I had to make sure that this district was represented properly with somebody who is a competent operator, who does understand these issues, who knows how to solve them, knows the people in all these different counties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Voters were paying less attention to the House race, but had strong opinions on Herrera\u2019s past remarks as a social media star known online as \u201cThe AK Guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Frank Ruiz, 46, said Herrera\u2019s comments about women and the right to vote are a dealbreaker as he headed inside to cast his vote at the University of Texas, San Antonio on Friday. He said he feels Herrera speaks \u201cvulgarly of women.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat conflicts with my values as a Christian, as a dad, as a girl dad,\u201d Ruiz said.<\/p>\n
The Democratic nominee in the race, Katy Padilla Stout, spent her Friday night at a trunk-or-treat in Julia Newton Aue Elementary School\u2019s parking lot on San Antonio\u2019s northside. She dressed as Ursula from \u201cThe Little Mermaid,\u201d handing out candy to children behind a booth promoting her campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Padilla Stout, an attorney and former public school teacher, faces long odds in a bright red district that reelected Gonzales with nearly 60 percent in 2024 and was redrawn to increase Republican strength.<\/p>\n
However, Padilla Stout said her district \u201cisn\u2019t extreme\u201d and that everyone wants the same things: a strong economy and safer schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s a red or a blue issue; I think that\u2019s more of just the leadership they\u2019re looking for,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have a lot of people who are really excited and invested in this race in places that maybe typically have leaned more Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for her opponent, Padilla Stout says that Herrera is \u201ctrying to distance himself from the online persona that he\u2019s built, but he\u2019s been online for over a decade, spewing the same racist and disgusting comments [and] that is exactly a reflection of who he is and what you\u2019ll get if he\u2019s elected.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/27USCTEXAS-Stout-1024x683.jpg\")
Padilla Stout campaigns in costume at a \u201ctrunk or treat\u201d event in San Antonio on Oct. 23.<\/p>\n
As a teacher herself whose child attends the same elementary school as the candidate\u2019s, Kathleen Gonzalez, 45, aligns with Padilla Stout\u2019s education platform on public schools.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need change in Texas,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cShe represents that change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For voters and parents like Ryan Campen, 46, whose son was participating in the trunk-or-treat, Texas\u2019 school voucher program is an election issue. The Texas Education Freedom Account program provides public funds for families to pay for private school tuition, homeschooling supplies and other approved educational services.<\/p>\n
He finds vouchers \u201cto be a little restrictive\u201d and leaving behind people in certain areas of the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat I find to be extremely frustrating,\u201d said Campen, who plans to vote for Padilla Stout. \u201cEducation is something that belongs to everyone.\u201d Inside Elections rates the race as Likely Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tanya Lloyd, also a public school teacher, is running for Congress for a second time as the Democratic candidate in Texas\u2019 27th District after losing to Michael Cloud in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lloyd said she\u2019s not surprised Texas is competitive right now, saying in an interview, \u201cit\u2019s a long time coming.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have such a diverse population in Texas \u2026 and they are finally seeing the effects of the Trump administration\u2019s cuts,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes them see things in a different light.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Lloyd faces long odds against Cloud in a deeply GOP district, she still says voters, including those from rural areas she has built her campaign around, are \u201cfinally waking up.\u201d Inside Elections rates the race Solid Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alex Alvarez, 24, of San Antonio, said he\u2019s seen Texas slowly decline, from education to mental health services to other public institutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping that with the other party being in power, that they\u2019ll be able to allot more resources or allocate more resources to those in the future,\u201d Alvarez said.<\/p>\n
In Fort Bend with Green and Talarico, Roger Vazquez, 41, a mental health counselor, said he sees people as highly motivated about the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Texans are passionate, and care about their people, Vazquez said, adding, \u201cYou know everything is bigger, including politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This story was reported from Texas by students from the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Direct questions to christina.bellantoni@usc.edu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By: Katherine Contreras Hernandez, Nicholas Corral, Jules Cox, Olivia Hau, Aden Max Juarez, Caitlin Roehmholdt, Loralei Rohrbach, Jose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":478660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10737,11346,34449,13077,910,3267,10738,2671,2133,7810,145,918,163,409,288,451,2327,407,10740,2038,584,2244,2946,10741,3309,1910,1526,2125,4491,287,1968,2424,13164,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-478659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-10737","tag-al-green","tag-appropriations","tag-brand-safety","tag-business","tag-california","tag-campaigns","tag-congress","tag-democrats","tag-donald-j-trump","tag-donald-trump","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-election","tag-elections","tag-energy","tag-environment","tag-ethics","tag-executive-branch","tag-families","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-homeland-security","tag-house","tag-john-cornyn","tag-leadership","tag-media","tag-mental-health","tag-national","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-republicans","tag-senate","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}