WASHINGTON — National Republicans are pulling money from Texas’ 28th Congressional District, a tacit acknowledgment of the difficulties they face in defeating Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar this fall — even after the Republican Party redrew the seat specifically to oust him.
The Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC that serves as the main piggy bank for House Republicans, is cutting $3 million the group had set aside for future airtime in the 28th District, according to a source familiar with the group’s spending. The money will be reallocated to run ads in the neighboring 15th and 34th congressional districts. The latter seat, like the 28th, was redrawn last summer in an effort to shift to GOP control. Meanwhile, Republicans are playing defense in Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s 15th District.
The sorting is the latest demonstration that Republicans’ mid-decade redistricting plan is not as robust as they once hoped. The Legislature redrew the map in 2025 with the goal of winning five congressional seats, including Cuellar’s Laredo-based district.
So they removed parts of the San Antonio-area district and replaced them with new territory in Hidalgo County — a heavily Hispanic county in the Rio Grande Valley that Donald Trump won in 2024, a first for a Republican presidential candidate in decades.
While the new shape of the 28th District transformed it from a seat Trump won by 7 percentage points to one he would have won by a 10-point margin, it also narrowly increased the percentage of votes won by House Democrats, according to Cuellar — a data point he is quick to bring up when asked about his chances.
Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina, a longtime elected official and former Democrat who switched parties in 2024, is Cuellar’s Republican opponent this cycle. He was seen as one of the GOP’s prized recruits this cycle, with Republicans optimistic that a confluence of Cuellar’s legal troubles, a redrawn district, GOP national investment and Tijerina’s track record would overwhelm Cuellar’s Teflon-like survivability.
The money transfer comes after President Mike Johnson rallied behind Tijerina and other South Texas Republican candidates yesterday. In an interview in Texas, Johnson told Fox News that “the polls are wrong.”
Public polling on the race has been rare, but a Texas Southern University poll in August found Cuellar leading by an 11-point margin. Polls have consistently shown Trump’s approval rating sagging among Latino Texans, after the president posted his best-ever margin among Hispanic voters in 2024.
To date, CLF has already spent $4.6 million on the race, according to ad tracking company AdImpact.
The two South Texas districts where CLF picks up the $3 million — held by De La Cruz, R-Edinburg, and McAllen Democrat Vicente Gonzalez — were both carried by Trump by double-digit margins, underscoring the depth of red territory that Republicans must defend in a difficult midterm climate. In both districts, the majority of eligible voters are Hispanic. Trump won the 15th Congressional District, held by De La Cruz, by 18 percentage points, and won Gonzalez’s redrawn seat by 10 points.
Cuellar, arguably the most moderate Democrat in the House, won his 2024 race against an underfunded white Republican by a margin of nearly 6 points in 2024, even as Trump won the district. This time last year, he was facing a pending federal trial on corruption and money laundering charges for which he was indicted in 2024.
But the “King of Laredo,” as he is known, received a full pardon from Trump last December, the same day he was running for reelection as a Democrat — a fact that Trump, who “thought there was a good chance” Cuellar would switch parties, publicly deplored.
Even before pulling the ad money, Republicans had acknowledged publicly and privately that Cuellar was a formidable opponent.
In an interview in early September, Cuellar projected his confidence in the race and his ability to win over Trump voters.
“If you look at history, I’ve done better than any state or national Democrat in my district,” Cuellar said. “I always outperform, whether it’s Beto O’Rourke or Colin Allred or anyone else — I get a lot of crossover from Republicans and certainly independents. … We’ve had that historically, and we’ll have it again.”
