McALLEN — Republicans and Democrats are fighting over South Texas, one of the conservative state’s few political battlegrounds.

The newest front is Texas’ House District 41.

Republicans hope to build on the gains they made in the 2024 election, in which the Rio Grande Valley — long a Democratic stronghold — supported President Donald Trump for reelection. Meanwhile, Democrats want to claw back ground.

The state House district, which includes most of McAllen, became a target for Republicans after state Rep. Bobby Guerra, a Democrat from Mission, decided not to seek reelection after 13 years in office.

But before the two parties can duke it out in the fall, Republicans and Democrats are locked in heated primary races of their own. And candidates in both parties are facing allegations of lying about their party affiliation.

The Democratic frontrunner, who has voted in GOP primaries in the past, is being accused of being a closet Republican. And the apparent Republican frontrunner — who has never voted at all — is being accused of secretly being a Democrat.

Despite similar conundrums, voters on either side of the aisle are facing two different questions as early voting is underway. Republicans will have to decide who has the best chance to win in the general election, while Democrats are trying to decide who will be the most effective in a Republican-controlled state House.

Early voting began this week. Election Day is March 3. If a candidate does not win at least 50%, a runoff election will be held by the top two vote-getters.

The Republicans

Among the candidates seeking the Republican nomination are Sergio Sanchez, a former felony prosecutor who previously voted in Democratic primaries; Gary Groves, a local Republican Party volunteer who organized Trump Train rallies; and Sarah Sagredo-Hammond, the owner of an HVAC company who had never voted at all.

Sagredo-Hammond, who has amassed the most campaign donations among her fellow Republicans, said she wasn’t raised to vote. Instead, she was taught to unite her community.

“To me, voting was dividing,” she said. “You’re taking a side, and now you’re dividing your community, and you’re causing one side to hate what you’re building because there’s so much division in politics.”

In June, people in the community began encouraging her to run. She resisted for months, she said. Then, her father, the man who had raised her not to vote, encouraged her to take the opportunity as a way to serve. She agreed.

As part of her campaign, she has promised to lower property taxes, lower health insurance costs and advocate for small businesses. But her absent voting history, as well as past comments on abortion access and gun laws, have drawn sharp criticism from her opponents.

Sergio Sanchez, a former prosecutor with the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office, has been her harshest critic. He has emphasized their differences on abortion policy, which he has made a central issue to his campaign.

Sagredo-Hammond has said she supports exceptions to the state’s abortion ban in cases of rape or incest, a stance she points out is similar to Trump’s.

Sanchez, though, insists such views belong in the Democratic Party.

“To all women or to anybody that is considering that you have a choice — you don’t,” Sanchez said during a candidate forum in January. “You don’t have a choice in Texas. I regret to inform you — all of you — that is our law, and I have every intention of making it even stronger.”

Sanchez said he would file a bill to create a five-member panel that would review cases in which abortion is recommended to save the life of the mother to determine whether the diagnosis is legitimate.

He also criticized Sagredo-Hammond for remarks she made on guns during a podcast in which she and other women were discussing mental health after a shooting in Georgia. During that conversation, Sagredo-Hammond questioned the sale of automatic guns and suggested they should be limited to war.

“We were sharing concepts and ideas,” Sagredo-Hammond said. “We were not saying we were going to change an amendment, because we never would.”

She noted she also suggested that guns can be a useful tool for women to protect themselves.

“If you’re single, and you’re a single female, I highly encourage you to go get a gun, go learn how to use it, to keep yourself protected,” she said.

That hasn’t stopped Sanchez, who received one of the highest ratings from the NRA’s political action committee, from continuing to accuse her of wanting to impose gun restrictions.

“I can promise you the first Republican for District 41 will be for the Second Amendment and not going to be imposing gun limits,” he said during a recent candidate forum.

Sanchez is facing his own accusations of not being a true Republican.

Gary Groves, a precinct chair for the Hidalgo County Republican Party, said he decided to run because he didn’t believe Sagredo-Hammond or Sanchez were conservative enough.

Groves leaves little doubt about what type of Republican he is, proudly wearing his red Make America Great Again cap nearly everywhere he goes.

“I feel that if somebody does run as a MAGA Republican and doesn’t shy away from it, there is a path forward to winning here in the Valley,” Groves said.

But in a possible sign of rising anti-Trump sentiment in the area, Groves’ campaign signs were vandalized in early February. The signs, which feature him donning the hat, were spray-painted with the words “No Nazis” and “No Fascists.”

Groves has argued that for the Republican nominee to be successful in the general election, they have to be a full-fledged MAGA Republican.

“We flipped this whole area red, and we saw the momentum and building of support for President Trump,” Groves said.
”And I see this, my race, my candidacy, as a further building of that support.”

In addition to pointing out that Sagredo-Hammond has never voted, Groves has repeatedly notedthat Sanchez previously voted in Democratic primaries.

Sanchez said he previously voted in Democratic primaries because Republicans rarely won elections in the fall. He figured voting in the Democratic primary had a greater sway in deciding the outcome of an election.

Texas House District 41, along with Hidalgo County as a whole, was part of the rightward shift in the Valley that helped solidify Trump’s victory in 2024.

Trump won District 41 by 1.6 percentage points that year. However, Republicans were not so successful down the ballot. Voters in District 41 voted for Democrats in nearly all other races. The most notable exception was in the race for Texas Senate District 27. Republican Adam Hinojosa beat Democrat Morgan LaMantia by more than 17 points among District 41 voters.

But in the past, because the Democratic nominee was a shoo-in to win the general election, the Democratic primaries were the only truly competitive races.

“I’ve chosen to be relevant, and to speak my voice with the vote,” Sanchez said. “I know how I vote in November, but the truth is, the history of the county is there’s only March races.”

The Democrats

Soon after Guerra announced he would not be seeking reelection, Seby Haddad, a McAllen City Commissioner and banker, announced his bid for the office. He’s earned the backing of the local party establishment, including Guerra, and other state legislators from the Valley.

Initially skeptical of running for the state House, Haddad said he eventually believed his experience representing the area at the city level would make him a good champion of the district at the state level.

“My biggest question to myself is: ‘Am I gonna get up there and be effective?’” Haddad said. “I truly believe that I can be incredibly more effective at the state level and still work with all the relationships that I’ve built up to benefit the region as a whole.”

But as he made his pitch to voters, Haddad’s past voting record has dogged his campaign. Between 2014 and 2022, Haddad voted in Republican primary elections, election rosters show. It wasn’t until 2024 that he voted in a Democratic primary.

His voting history has served as the basis for attacks from opponents — Eric Holguín, Texas policy director for UnidosUs, a Latino civil rights group, and Julio Salinas, a Texas legislative staffer and co-chair of the Texas Democratic Party Hispanic Caucus.

Holguín accused Haddad of only running as a Democrat because the district is Democratic.

“I’m proud to be an actual Democrat who has been voting Democrat since 2006, when I could first vote,” Holguín said during a candidate forum last week. “I’m not politically carpetbagging the way someone else up here is.”

Haddad said he grew up a conservative Catholic. The pro-business and pro-fiscal responsibility messaging from the Republican Party resonated with him as someone in banking and as a small business owner.

As he became more involved in politics, he said he began looking at candidates on an individual basis, beyond their party affiliation.

“It was just about being practical, being pragmatic, and kind of finding common sense solutions,” he said.

Haddad said he began moving away from the Republican Party due to Trump, of whom Haddad has never been a fan.

Holguín said he’s not against people joining the Democratic Party, but he took issue with a newcomer immediately seeking a position of power within the party.

“Why are you seeking the position of power within the (Democratic Party) immediately, as opposed to joining our cause, being with Democrats, going to meetings, helping organize, doing a lot of the work that many of us have been doing for many, many years?” Holguín said.

Voting history aside, the three candidates share similar views on most policy issues.

All agree on the need for property tax reform and the need for the state to properly fund public schools, Medicaid expansion, increased investment in water infrastructure and opposition to the development of more data centers in the area.

They also said they were against Operation Lone Star, Texas’ border security initiative, and would support a requirement for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to wear visible identification.

Holguín has been running a social media-heavy campaign to get his name out to voters. But this isn’t his first foray.

In 2020, Holguín ran for Texas House District 32 — which includes Corpus Christi and Aransas — but lost to state Rep. Todd Hunter, a Republican from Corpus Christi. In 2018, Holguín also ran for Texas’ 27th Congressional District but lost to U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud, a Republican from Victoria.

Holguín said he wants to raise wages and diversify the region’s economy. One of the first things he’d do in office, he said, is introduce a bill that would ensure rent is counted toward building credit.

Salinas, at 26-years-old, is one of the youngest elected party leaders in Texas. For the past five years, he’s worked as a legislative staffer, including as the legislative director for state Rep. Christina Morales, a Democrat from Houston. He received Morales’ endorsement in the race along with several other state lawmakers from outside the Valley, including state Rep. Lulu Flores, a Democrat from Austin.

Salinas has also emphasized the affordability crisis and pledged to “take on the oligarchs that rigged the economy to serve themselves.”

If elected, Salinas would prioritize a child care tax credit bill that would compensate non-primary caregivers. He also wants a $15,000 raise for teachers and a cap on prescription drug prices.

Haddad’s top priorities include addressing the state’s water crisis through investment in water infrastructure for new sources of water, but also for water recapture. He also emphasized investment in education, particularly in vocational schools.

Haddad said he’s proud to call himself a center, moderate Democrat; however, he said he respects people on the farthest end of the progressive spectrum because he believes they’re fighting for the same values.

“I think it’s critical that we understand that, and that we stick together,” he said. “The Republican side — they will celebrate their worst, and sometimes on the Democrat side, we’ll nitpick our best.”

Reporting in the Rio Grande Valley is supported in part by the Methodist Healthcare Ministries of South Texas, Inc.

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