This article has been updated.
What was viewed as a bellwether race between U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and Republican Cassy Garcia for Texas’ 28th Congressional District stayed safely in Democratic hands Tuesday night. In the end, Cuellar won comfortably with 56.42% of the vote.
Other members of Bexar County’s Congressional delegation on the ballot Tuesday also won reelection, according to final results: Republicans Tony Gonzales and Chip Roy and Democrat Joaquin Castro.
A new member will be joining the delegation in Texas’ 35th Congressional District. Former Austin City Councilman Greg Casar won the race to replace longtime Democratic Rep. Lloyd Doggett, who was running in a newly created Austin district.
The moderate Cuellar secured his 10th term, but it wasn’t easy. He narrowly survived a well-funded primary threat from Jessica Cisneros earlier this year, temporarily dampening Republicans’ enthusiasm about a district President Joe Biden would have carried by roughly 7 percentage points. Texas’ 28th District stretches from north of Bexar County all the way to Laredo, and was one of three south Texas seats Republicans targeted this election cycle.
However, only one of those seats ended up flipping to the GOP.
On Tuesday night, Garcia’s watch party at Bluebonnet Palace was well-attended. As throngs of supporters, some in cowboy hats and others with MAGA hats, watched the electoral math get more difficult for Garcia, a spokesman took the stage a few minutes after 11 p.m. to say Garcia had left for her hotel room and wouldn’t be speaking to supporters.
Texas Republicans were more confident about their prospects for this election cycle as national allies dumped money in to help Garcia, who outraised the longtime incumbent in the final stretch.
No Republican has won Texas’ 28th Congressional District since it was created in 1993, though Republicans have been making inroads in South Texas recently. Republican Mayra Flores won a special election in nearby Texas’ Congressional District 34 but lost Tuesday night.
Garcia is a former aide to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz who grew up near the border but ran her campaign out of the northern part of the district. She campaigned with Cruz in Selma last Friday, promising to be an ally to her political mentor and to Roy, who hired her in Cruz’s office when he was the senator’s chief of staff.
Cuellar serves on the House Appropriations Committee and as deputy whip for House Democratic leaders, which supported him in the primary and moved resources out of a nearby open race to help him in the general election. His campaign took a bruising in February when FBI conducted a search of Cuellar’s home and campaign office in Laredo. Though details about the FBI investigation are hazy, Cuellar’s lawyer told the Associated Press that the lawmaker is not the target.
District 35
Casar’s campaign declared victory in Texas’ 35th Congressional District, pulling in 72.55% of the vote. His opponent, former Corpus Christi Mayor Dan McQueen, garnered 27.45% of the vote.
“Texas is not a red state. We are an under-organized state — and today’s win demonstrates how our movement can build long-term power,” Casar said in a prepared statement. “This is only the beginning, because I’m not headed to Congress by myself. I’m taking our movement for Texas working families with me.”
This barbell-shaped district includes part of south Austin, runs along Interstate 35, then connects to northern San Antonio, making it one of the most heavily Democratic seats in the state.
Casar is an outspoken progressive and organized labor ally who campaigned alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in San Marcos last month. Casar’s victory marks what could be the first Texas representative to join “the Squad,” a progressive bloc of Democratic lawmakers in the House.
Texas’ 35th is so blue that Casar spent part of the last weekend outside of it, campaigning for Texas House District 118 candidate Frank Ramirez and other Democrats on San Antonio’s South Side.
Casar said in an interview that he plans to open a district office in San Antonio and continue working closely with members of the San Antonio City Council who he partnered with on housing issues and throughout the pandemic while serving on Austin’s City Council.
“The east side of Austin down to the west side of San Antonio are all connected by our need to have more pro-worker and progressive policies at the federal level,” Casar said. “In Congress … I’ll be fighting to bring infrastructure and good union jobs to San Antonio.”
District 23
Gonzales, a Republican, defeated John Lira with 55.87% of the vote. Lira received 38.7% of the vote and Frank Lopez Jr., an independent candidate and former Border Patrol officer, got less than 5.34% of the vote.
“Tonight’s outcome shows that Texas want a fighter who is focused on results,” Gonzales said in a prepared statement declaring victory. “I am honored by the faith the people of TX-23 have placed in me to serve them again. I will not let them down.”
He will enter his second term representing a district Democrats tried to flip in 2018, when it was represented by Will Hurd, and again when Gonzales was first on the ballot in 2020. This time around, the Democratic candidate, Lira, received little help from his national party in a district that’s been redrawn to favor Republicans.
Gonzales took heat from local Republican groups earlier this year for splitting with the party on a gun safety bill after the shooting at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, which is in his district. Two county Republican parties voted to censure him, but a similar effort in Bexar County failed.
The move doesn’t seem to have rattled the first-term congressman, who serves on the Appropriations Committee, which makes Congress’ spending decisions and whose members typically have no problems fundraising.
“This campaign was based on a simple idea — show up, be genuine, get things done, and the rest will take care of itself,” Gonzales stated Tuesday night. “Washington ignored this district for far too long, but that has changed on my watch. I’m proud to say over the last two years I have delivered and I’m just getting started.”
He recently told Politico he’s been helping colleagues jockey for leadership positions if Republicans take control of the House.
District 20
Castro has won his sixth term in Texas’ 20th Congressional District, defeating his Republican opponent, Kyle Sinclair, with nearly 68.39% of the vote.
Castro was first elected in 2012 and serves on the House foreign relations, intelligence, and education and the workforce committees. The political veteran was trained as a lawyer and previously served five terms as Texas state representative for District 125. His identical twin brother, Julián Castro, was mayor of San Antonio from 2009 to 2014.
Sinclair is a health care executive and first-time candidate who joined local party activists in opposing the city’s efforts to welcome migrants through a resource center in the district. The Army veteran campaigned aggressively in Republican circles over the past year, though the district, which covers a large portion of San Antonio and Bexar County, heavily favors Democrats. The district has never sent a Republican to Congress in its 88 years.
District 21
Roy won his third term by beating Democratic challenger Claudia Zapata with 62.88% of the vote.
Roy is a longtime Republican operative who worked for both Texas senators and Attorney General Ken Paxton before running for Congress in 2018. He defeated Democrat Wendy Davis, who ran for governor in 2014, in an expensive race in 2020.
Since then the district has been redrawn much more favorably for Republicans and Zapata’s campaign received little attention from the national party.
Roy is an outspoken member of the House Freedom Caucus who has vowed to push Republican leaders to the right on immigration if they take control of the House.
“We worked hard in redistricting to jettison downtown south Austin, so now this is a much more heavily San Antonio district,” Roy told members of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce at a luncheon last month. “I live in Hays County, but I spent a whole lot of my time here in San Antonio.”
