Bobby Pulido, the award-winning Tejano musician and Democratic congressional candidate, thanked the incumbent he’s challenging for the 15th Congressional District for giving him the best piece of election “advice”: campaigning at quinceañeras.
“We would have never thought about that,” Pulido said at the Texas Tribune Festival. “You got them on a Friday night or Saturday night, they’re a little tipsy, and they’re happy, took a selfie with you, and everybody’s got their cellphones, and they’re streaming, and you’re like, ‘Oh, this algorithm’s going really good.’”
Pulido, who said he has performed in at least 75 quinceañeras while running for office, is challenging U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, for the 15th Congressional District, which spans Hidalgo County and runs north to rural San Antonio. De La Cruz in March criticized Pulido for performing at such events, saying the race “isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera.”
Pulido turned the dig into a campaign strategy, arguing the events are a means to reach Hispanic voters too busy to keep up with the election.
On Friday, the Cook Political Report categorized the race as a toss-up in a district De La Cruz has represented since 2022.
The region has undergone a political shift. In 2025, Texas Republicans redrew the state’s congressional maps to bolster the party’s majority in the U.S. House. The new congressional maps redrew two South Texas districts to favor Republicans, complicating Democrats’ chances to retain control in the region. President Donald Trump won Congressional District 15 by 18 points in 2024.
Pulido said Democrats have long taken the region for granted, particularly in the northern portion of the district.
“Candidates that used to go in these districts didn’t go to northern counties because they didn’t have to,” Pulido said, adding that candidates relied on voters further south in the border towns of the Rio Grande Valley. “We were spending resources in Republican counties … for a primary because none of their elected officials were Democrats. But that’s not the point. The point is to show up early; that way you gain their trust, and not a caricature of what they think a Democrat is.”
Pulido also said both parties have misunderstood the region’s Hispanic population, arguing that their political views transcend labels.
“The Hispanic vote is the most difficult to figure out for both parties, and as the Hispanic vote goes, so goes the country,” Pulido said. “We’re a bellwether for everything across the nation, and especially in the Mexican diaspora, which is what we are.”
If elected to Congress, Pulido said his two priorities would be reforming immigration, which he called a humanitarian and economic issue, and healthcare.
