Jimena Sáenz’s glittery blue quinceañera gown caught the light and sparkled as she swayed to the Tejano music flowing through the Edinburg event center last month.

Her friends and family formed a circle around her, some mouthing lyrics as they filmed on their phones and danced to the live performance from Bobby Pulido, the Tejano music star who is running for Congress in South Texas.

It was one of a dozen quinceañeras the Democrat and first-time political candidate has gone to since mid-March, an effort aimed at spinning a dig from his opponent — who said the election “isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera” — into an offbeat way of reaching new voters.

At Sáenz’s quinceañera, Pulido started the evening singing “Hermoso Cariño” by Mexican singer Vicente Fernández and later performed “Desvelado,” the title track of his 1995 album that propelled him to fame and reached the top 10 on Billboard’s chart of top Latin albums.

It’s also a favorite for Jimena Sáenz’s sisters.

“I know it’s basic, but ‘Desvelado’ is definitely just one of those bangers that you cannot get rid of this family at all,” said Janie Sáenz, Jimena’s 20-year-old sister.

Pulido’s quinceañera circuit was inspired by a March 4 video posted on social media by his Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, in which she referred to Pulido as a “scandal-plagued celebrity” and questioned his fitness for office.

“This election isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera,” said De La Cruz, R-Edinburg. “It’s about who you trust with your family’s future. After years of neglect, South Texas finally has a seat at the table, and we’re not going to jeopardize that.”

Pulido fired back, saying the celebration — which celebrates a girl’s 15th birthday and transition into womanhood — is a rite of passage in South Texas that brings the community together.

“Quinceaneras are a part of our culture here,” he said in an interview. “She tried to make it an insult, and I take it as a badge of honor.”

Pulido put out an open call for invitations to perform at quinceañeras across Texas’ 15th Congressional District, which stretches from east of San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley and is Democrats’ top target in Texas. His campaign received more than 1,000 requests in the first 24 hours, and in the weeks since, people have also been asking Pulido to perform at birthday parties, bar mitzvahs and graduations, he said, noting that the requests now number more than 2,700.

Amy Sáenz, Jimena Sáenz’s 18-year-old sister who filled out the form inviting Pulido, said she heard about his performances from her high school coaches and classmates and filled out the form after encouragement from her mom. She said her family planned Pulido’s appearance as a surprise for the roughly 250 guests they expected.

At the quinceañera, Pulido gave Jimena Sáenz a pink hat labeled “Make Quinceañeras Great Again” and autographed by the Tejano singer.

“We decided to invite Bobby Pulido to not only showcase what a quinceañera is, but to also have the memory of him being able to come,” said Amy, who is a senior in high school. She said her family is politically engaged and already held a positive opinion of the singer before his performance.

But Álvaro Corral, a political science assistant professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, said Pulido’s strategy is not just about appealing to people attending the quinceañeras, but also those seeing the videos and photos from the events that have been shared across social media — a relatively low-cost way to reach more voters.

“It’s a way to reach a lot of people … a lot of folks who may not necessarily be super plugged into politics, especially in a midterm election,” he said, adding that it also helps Pulido capitalize further on his positive image as a famous musician and present himself as a political outsider rather than a “politician.”

Jackie Bastard, executive director of Jolt Initiative, a Texas-based nonprofit that aims to increase civic participation among Latinos, said quinceañeras are a sacred cultural milestone in the Latino community that represent a young woman stepping into leadership and responsibility. Pulido’s strategy puts him in touch with voters where they are and introduces him to their communities and the issues they face, she added.

“It’s more than just singing,” said Bastard, whose group runs a program that registers people to vote at quinceañeras. “[When] celebrities or even politicians use that power to visit people … they tend to talk to these individuals a lot closer and and really tell them the issues that are impacting them.”

National Democrats are bullish on Pulido’s chances of reclaiming the 15th Congressional District, which covers a massive geographic area but has most of its population in Hidalgo County, a border community that includes McAllen. De La Cruz has held the seat since she flipped it in 2022, marking the first time in history a Republican won the district.

Democrats are gunning for the seat this election cycle, hoping to win back Latino voters amid growing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration over the economy and immigration. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee put De La Cruz’s seat — where about three-quarters of registered voters are Hispanic — on a list of 35 Republican-held districts they’re targeting across the country as they try to win control of the U.S. House this fall.

But Pulido’s congressional run has also attracted criticism as a growing number of his old social media posts have resurfaced and been used as fodder by De La Cruz and Republican allies to argue the musician is unfit for Congress. They have also pointed to reports that Pulido performed with a bandmate who is a registered sex offender. Pulido’s campaign has said he was unaware of the bandmate’s criminal history, which includes a conviction for indecent contact with an 8-year-old girl.

Pulido’s unearthed posts, meanwhile, include ones with misogynistic jokes and links to pornographic websites. His political foes have also circulated a music video from 2010 in which he played the role of a pervert. Pulido defended the video, saying it was satirical and “based on a real singer that was caught in a lewd act.”

In a March 22 video posted on X, Pulido called the criticism “cheap tabloid attacks” and said they stem from translating posts from Spanish to English, which doesn’t properly convey the original humor.

A spokesperson for De La Cruz’s campaign noted in a statement that Pulido also shared an explicit photo of a woman unintentionally exposing herself at his concert in a 2023 post.

“While he’s busy explaining his predatory behavior,” the spokesperson said, “Congresswoman De La Cruz is focused on delivering for working-class families in South Texas, because she’s actually one of them.”

As of Wednesday evening, Pulido also had yet to file a financial disclosure with the House Clerk providing details about his income, assets and other financial information. The report was due within 30 days of the start of Pulido’s campaign; candidates may request extensions before that initial deadline, though Pulido did not do so.

Pulido’s campaign said they were working as quickly as possible to finalize the report and would file it soon, adding that the candidate’s background as a musician makes financial disclosures more complex.

“Some of the jokes, I wish I could take back,” Pulido said in an interview. “I’m not going to apologize for acting in a music video. I’m an actor, I’m a singer, I’m part of the entertainment industry, and I think that they’re just grasping at straws.”

Before he launched his campaign for Texas, Pulido became a household name in Tejano music, which is a fusion of Mexican and American sounds that originated in Texas. He’s gotten five Latin Grammy nominations and has more than 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify.

Janie Sáenz said Tejano music has impacted her and her family’s lives, adding that quinceañeras are important to her family as a marker of both the start of adulthood and a celebration of the childhood that is ending.

“Bobby Pulido’s music has been a major part of our family growing up,” Janie Sáenz said. “We’re very proud, not only of our last name, but everything we’ve inherited.”

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