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PHARR, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 Latin Grammy winner Bobby Pulido’s music fills the air well before he walks into an adult day care center to round up support for his congressional campaign, his voice crooning in Spanish from a speaker in the corner. <\/p>\n A few of the people playing cards and bantering playfully at the South Texas center ask about the man in cowboy boots, dark jeans, leather jacket and an ivory cowboy hat as the Democrat makes his entrance, but most barely notice. Then the music fades, and Pulido takes a microphone. <\/p>\n It is important to vote and ensure your children do, too, he says in Spanish, \u201cbecause the truth is that we are living in difficult times right now and it is important to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n Pulido has had a three-decade career in Tejano music, a style that evolved in the fields and barrios of South Texas. A world away in Washington, Democrats are betting that his celebrity can reverse the party\u2019s deteriorating standing among Hispanics<\/a>, whose political support has shifted to Republicans<\/a> in the Trump era. They also see him as the party’s best hope to win a district that was engineered to protect U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, the only House Republican<\/a> from Texas’ Rio Grande Valley<\/a>. <\/p>\n With three competitive races this fall, the region is at the center of the battle to control the House after Texas Republicans, at President Donald Trump\u2019s request, redrew congressional district boundaries to give their party an edge. The party primaries are Tuesday.<\/p>\n Pulido is a newcomer to politics who still has two stops left on a farewell music tour, including one this weekend in Mexico. In the Democratic primary<\/a>, he faces Ada Cuellar, a doctor and law school graduate who is running to his left, with the race reflecting broader party dynamics. Cuellar argues that Pulido is out of touch with voters and that he and the party establishment are putting too much stock in his music-star status. <\/p>\n Both Democrats in the closely contested U.S. Senate primary have waded into the congressional race, with state Rep. James Talarico campaigning with Pulido and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett with Cuellar. <\/p>\n The Democratic nominee in the 15th Congressional District will face an even tougher general election landscape. De La Cruz won the seat by 14 percentage points in 2024, even before Republicans tweaked the boundaries to solidify her position.<\/p>\n Pulido runs from the center in a changing district<\/p>\n The area Pulido hopes to represent stretches from the Mexican border 300 miles north through ranches and small towns. It is 81% Hispanic, poorer than the state and nation as a whole, and overwhelmingly Catholic. It encapsulates the shift of working-class voters Hispanics to the Republican Party, one of the defining political trends of the Trump era.<\/p>\n In the newly constituted district, Democrats saw their support in recent presidential elections fall from 55% for Hillary Clinton in 2016 to 41% for Kamala Harris in 2024.<\/p>\n Pulido has staked out moderate positions that nod to the region\u2019s cultural conservatism, sometimes drawing the ire of the left. He says, for example, that he opposes abortion but supports letting women decide for themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cEven if I personally would not be OK with it, I still respect that other people might make their own decisions and that we have to be OK with that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Pulido has faced scrutiny for years of bawdy social media posts, including crude and sexist jokes and links to pornographic websites. He once posted a video purporting to show him urinating on Trump\u2019s star on Hollywood\u2019s Walk of Fame. The singer later said it was a prank with a water bottle.<\/p>\n \u201cMy sense of humor on social media \u2014 and it\u2019s very much in Spanish, I have a lot of fans in Mexico \u2014 sometimes that humor doesn\u2019t translate,\u201d Pulido said. He said he was embarrassed by some of his old posts.<\/p>\n Tough opposition in primary and general elections<\/p>\n Cuellar, Pulido\u2019s chief opponent in the Democratic primary, is emphasizing her experience in the trenches of the health care system. She contrasts her expertise in public policy with Pulido\u2019s as a performer.<\/p>\n \u201cHe doesn\u2019t really understand the issues or have the solutions that I have,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Cuellar is running a more progressive campaign, saying Pulido is out of touch with Democratic voters on abortion in particular.<\/p>\n Pulido is not so much a threat because he is famous, she said, but because he aggressively has backed by \u201cthe establishment\u201d in Washington and locally in Hidalgo County, the district\u2019s largest population center. Cuellar said officials, whom she did not name, have pushed her to drop out of the race.<\/p>\n \u201cI am like a scrappy underdog, and I\u2019ve been one my whole life,\u201d Cuellar said. \u201cSo I really am not concerned about the celebrity itself, but I\u2019m fighting this establishment pressure, and that\u2019s really the biggest challenge I\u2019m faced with.\u201d<\/p>\n She has largely self-funded her campaign to keep pace with Pulido\u2019s spending and has aired television ads, while he has not.<\/p>\n National Democratic leaders believe Pulido’s more moderate positions make him the best general election candidate against De La Cruz. Though largely aligned with Trump and the House leadership, she was one of only 17 House Republicans to vote with Democrats on a bill extending Affordable Care Act subsidies.<\/p>\n Speaking before Trump at a rally in Corpus Christi on Friday, De La Cruz said she has worked with him to pressure Mexico to release water it owes<\/a> from the countries’ shared Rio Grande basin<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cWe have together delivered for Texas and delivered for our nation by turning all of South Texas red, and we will continue to keep Texas red,\u201d De La Cruz said. <\/p>\n Celebrity \u2018opens the door\u2019<\/p>\n Inside My Morning Star Adult Day Care, where Pulido spoke on a recent day, his music returned as he made rounds from table to table, shaking hands and making small talk in English or Spanish, depending on how he was greeted.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ll ask the sky to not make me suffer anymore,\u201d Pulido’s voice is heard over an accordion and rhythmic percussion, narrating a story of heartbreak and longing. The 1997 song, \u201cLe Pedir\u00e9,\u201d is among the hits of his three-decade career.<\/p>\n