In Laredo, where Cuellar’s brother is the county sheriff, Gonzalez recalls taking “a lot of heat” when his health department began offering contraceptive pills.
His powerful allies in Congress have defended their support for Cuellar, in part by saying a loss would open the door to Republicans flipping the district that also leans more conservative when it comes to gun rights and border security. “When we take the time to talk to people about what it really means to be pro-choice, meaning believing government shouldn’t be in the middle of these type of private decisions and seeking abortion, then people usually realize that they’re pro-choice,” she said in an interview.Ĭuellar brushed off the impact of the Supreme Court leak at a San Antonio rally this month, saying voters know his position. The charges were swiftly dropped after drawing national outrage, but Cisneros pointed to it as a case of prosecution for seeking health care. When a grand jury in South Texas indicted a woman on murder charges in April over a self-induced abortion, it happened in one of the district’s rural counties. National polling before the leaked draft found abortion trailing other concerns, including high inflation and gun control. The outcome could reveal the limits of abortion as a galvanizing issue for voters. It was as close as Cuellar has come to losing his 17-year grip on the seat.īut the runoff has also illustrated the uphill climb America’s abortion rights movement faces this fall in mounting an all-out attack on opposing incumbents - a challenge that is on display even here in a solidly Democratic region, to say nothing of the fight ahead in Republican-leaning districts. In the March primary, Cisneros finished roughly 1,000 votes behind Cuellar, forcing the runoff after neither candidate met the majority threshold to win outright. Still, a leaked draft of the court’s ruling in April has shaken up what was already a close - and increasingly costly - race.
Cisneros, he argued, was at risk of losing to a Republican.
Jim Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, campaigned with Cuellar in Texas this month, saying the most important priority should be keeping the seat in the party’s hands. Progressives have scored some notable wins so far this primary season, defeating a moderate candidate in last week’s Senate primary in Pennsylvania and potentially unseating an incumbent congressman in Oregon, where vote counting is still underway.Įager to protect an incumbent, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has stood by Cuellar even as she reaffirms her staunch support of abortion rights. Regardless, the race will provide insight about the direction of the Democratic Party. “National trends are not set by one election and not determined by one election,” said Laphonza Butler, president of Emily’s List, which backs women who support abortion rights and has endorsed Cisneros.
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An infusion of money that outside groups have poured on the ground and across TV in South Texas is an indicator of an important race, with abortion rights advocates trying to lower expectations about broader implications.
Supreme Court poised to potentially overturn abortion rights in a ruling this summer, the runoff is being closely watched for clues about whether the issue will animate Democratic voters. But he’s facing the stiffest challenge of his career on Tuesday in a runoff election against progressive rival Jessica Cisneros, a 28-year-old immigration attorney who supports abortion access. That culture has helped protect the region’s nine-term congressman, Henry Cuellar, who is one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress. “Definitely it was, ‘No abortion,'” said Gonzalez, the city’s former public health director. He spent the next 20 years experiencing firsthand where the largely Hispanic and heavily Catholic community along the border with Mexico usually sided. Hector Gonzalez arrived in Laredo, Texas, in 2001, the last abortion clinic had already closed.