Native Laredoan Jessica Cisneros, a first generation American of immigrant parents, takes on incumbent Congressman Henry Cuellar in the race for District 28.
Can’t see the forest because he’s cut down all the trees: Congressman Cuellar’s barrage of flyers extoll his virtues and denigrate his opponent.
Cuellar’s absurd birther campaign against Jessica Cisneros: most desperate campaign ad ever. How could an outsider from NYC have attended Laredo public schools (K-12) and graduated valedictorian of LISD’s Early College High School? Cisneros, like Cuellar, is a first generation American born in Laredo to immigrant parents and raised here.
For an incumbent who has been dismissive of the young, articulate immigration attorney he will face in the March 3 primary, Congressman Henry Cuellar has gone to considerable expense to take prime time swipes at challenger Jessica Cisneros and to discredit her qualifications.
The contentious race that is playing out on a David and Goliath landscape has presented District 28 voters with telling contrasts of character, campaign strategy, and fundraising.
“There are some who have labeled this race as liberal versus conservative, but it is much more about the policies that shape our lives. It is about an opportunity to have true representation. It is about a shot for true change,” Cisneros said of the
gritty grass roots campaign she launched in the Spring of 2019, after being vetted and backed by the national Justice Democrats.
She is visibly present in the workings of her campaign across a sprawling district that begins south of San Antonio and includes Atascosa, McMullen, Webb, Zapata, and Starr counties, and portions of Bexar, La Salle, Wilson, and Hidalgo counties.
Cuellar seems most present in TV ads, postage paid mail, press releases, and a recent parade appearance. He has refused to engage with Cisneros in a live, televised debate.
CAN’T SEE THE FOREST BECAUSE HE CUT DOWN THE TREES
The mail carriers of District 28 bear the weight of Cuellar’s zealous barrage of glossy, oversized postcards extolling his virtues as a sleeves-rolled-up champion who has called out Donald Trump on affordable health care for seniors and for the president’s “disastrous economic and health care agenda.”
Per those flyers, the Congressman vows “to protect South Texas families,” and he says he’s working so the administration “won’t take our land” in the “wasteful eminent domain land grab.”
One such piece of campaign literature presents an eight-inch image of a defiantly posed orange-skinned, orange-coiffed President Trump juxtaposed with newspaper headline synopses meant to differentiate the Congressman’s agenda with the president’s and perhaps to dispel that he is “Trump’s favorite Democrat.” On the backside of that mailer, Cuellar says he is “leading the fight to stop Trump’s useless and destructive wall” and that he is “demanding a humane response to Trump’s cruel immigration policies.”
That particular mailer veers from reality.
Cuellar has not led the charge to stop the border wall, neither here in his hometown, which is at the epicenter of the xenophobic campaign promise coming to life, nor elsewhere in his district.
As to the centrist Congressman’s demand for an immigration policy predicated on human rights and justice, it is important to remember that Cuellar’s campaign benefits directly from the political largesse of for-profit private prisons that house immigrant detainees, often indeterminately. Such protracted detention is paid for by federal contracts and generates the currency that the private prison industry contributes to political campaigns like Cuellar’s.
Though Cuellar enjoys the steadfast allegiance of the Laredo establishment for all the years he has brought home federal bacon, Cisneros’ disarming presentation of herself and her goals has resonated with constituents who want change, responsiveness, and engaged action to high impact issues like the administration’s border wall.
“We have localized the national conversation about the wall, affordable healthcare, policies that impact our lives like access to insurance, creating local jobs, jobs that leave less of a carbon footprint, lower prescription drug costs, tackling poverty, strong labor protection, fighting for a $15 hourly minimum wage, and working to establish tuition-free public colleges, universities, and trade schools,” Cisneros said, adding, “Our campaign has been relevant to the people of District 28. They don’t want absentee leadership. They want access. They want to hear the truth. They certainly don’t want to hear that Cuellar has stood up to Trump on the border wall, when they know he voted to fund it.”
FUNDRAISING: DISPARATE PHILOSOPHICAL DIFFERENCES
Cuellar began the campaign with a war chest of about $3 million to Cisneros’ zero — though she raised $100,000 in the first 48 hours of her candidacy. The average donation to the Cuellar campaign has been $2,800; Cisneros’, $32. Half of Cuellar’s campaign funding comes from corporate PACS; Cisneros’ from individuals who support the grass roots race she set in motion and that has gained such momentum.
Cisneros has not accepted corporate money or the money of lobbyists. The list of Cuellar donors reflects the interests he protects — oil and gas, private prisons, banks, attorneys and law firms, railroads, and health professionals.
SLICK VS. PROGRESSIVE GRASS ROOTS
Those who direct Henry Cuellar’s slick, well-oiled campaign under-estimated Cisneros, the most serious opponent he has ever faced in a primary race, a progressive first-time candidate whose simple message to better serve the people of the 28th Congressional District has drawn an impressive retinue of endorsements, including those of three presidential candidates — Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Elizabeth Warren, and former San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, who served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Obama Administration.
As well, Cisneros has been endorsed by the Working Families Party, EMILY’s List, the Communications Workers of America District 6, J Street, MoveOn, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, the Texas AFL-CIO, the Texas Organizing Project, Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
The Cisneros campaign has benefited from Texas Forward’s commitment to spend $1.2 million in ads. An additional $350,000 will come from labor unions and other progressive groups that believe in her effort to unseat the conservative incumbent.
Cisneros noted that the AFL-CIO rarely endorses a candidate in a primary race
Of interest, too, is the hands-on help that some of Cisneros progressive supporters have provided. NARAL sent a full-time organizer to work with the Cisneros campaign, and EMILY’s List has trained the Cisneros campaign staff.
CUELLAR ENDORSEMENTS: KOCH BROTHERS AND NRA
Cuellar has the blessings of the National Rifle Association, the Koch Brothers through LIBRE Initiative Action, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Blue Dog Democrats, Business-Industry Political Action Committee (BIPAC), Texas Farm Bureau Federation, and Texas State Teachers Association.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will spend $200,000 for TV ads for Cuellar, and American Workers for Progress has pledged $700,000 for the same purpose.
THE CAMPAIGN ACCORDING TO JESSICA
Cisneros, who once interned in Cuellar’s D.C. office, said the Congressman’s allegation that she is someone who “moved here recently from New York” was a page torn from Trump’s birther playbook.
“I was born here, the first generation American child of Mexican immigrants, just as he was,” Cisneros said. “That assertion seemed desperate on his part.”
She said Cuellar’s leadership does not leave an avenue open for feedback from his constituency. “He is out of touch. A vote for Henry Cuellar is a vote for the status quo,” Cisneros said, adding that distance from his constituency could be a factor in the Congressman’s refusal to face off in a debate she requested along with media and local student and civic organizations. She asked him as recently as the Feb. 22 WBCA parade to agree to a debate.
Asked if the campaign had changed her, Cisneros replied, “This has been a very validating experience for me. I have learned to push myself out of my comfort zone. The campaign is bigger than I am. I can be gregarious. I can be informed, but I am shy to ask people to give of their time and money,” she said.
Shy though she may be, she raised over half a million dollars in the last quarter of 2019, about $42,000 more than the incumbent raised.
Cisneros is the daughter of Ramona and José Luis Cisneros. She attended Laredo public schools and graduated valedictorian of LISD’s Early College High School. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Texas-Austin in 2015 and graduated from the University of Texas School of Law in 2018, specializing in immigration law.
(From the Cisneros campaign: She was awarded the Texas Law Fellowships Excellence in Public Interest Award, the Pro Bono Award, the Chicano/Hispanic Law Students’ Association’s Spirit of Community Award, and the Dean’s Achievement award for most outstanding student in the field of Immigration Law.
Cisneros worked with UT law faculty to create the Women in Immigration Detention Assistance Project, which assisted asylum seekers at the Hutto Detention Center in Taylor, Texas, and she clerked at the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in San Antonio.
The Cisneros campaign office is at 1103 Garfield. Campaign manager Daniel Diaz can be reached at (956) 203-0511,)
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