Four years ago, retired Air Force veteran Carlos De La Cruz was cheering from the sidelines for his older sister’s history-making congressional campaign.

Now if things go his way in the coming weeks, he and U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-Edinburg) could make history again — in a Texas Congressional delegation that’s been totally reshaped by the return of President Donald Trump.

“Think of this: the first ever brother-sister team to serve in the House of Representatives,” U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told a crowd of supporters at an Oct. 13 campaign rally in Corpus Christi.

Johnson can only hope it goes that way on Nov. 3.

At Trump’s urging, the GOP placed a massive gamble on Texas this year, redrawing the state’s congressional districts to hold onto a razor-thin U.S. House majority.

Monica De La Cruz, a UTSA alumna, had to give up part of her South Texas district that reached just east of San Antonio.

She campaigned hard to become the first Republican ever elected in her 15th Congressional District in 2022, and now faces a tough reelection race in a district that’s 80% new territory.

“Monica De La Cruz is a treasure to South Texas, and she’s got to get elected in a new district,” Johnson said Tuesday. “We changed the district lines, and so a lot of the people in her new district don’t know what a powerhouse she is in Congress.”

In a nod to her sacrifice, national party leaders went all-in to help her younger brother secure the GOP nomination for the new 35th Congressional District.

Carlos De La Cruz moved his family to San Antonio in 2012 when he was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base, but he was virtually unknown in local GOP circles before Trump endorsed him in a crowded GOP primary.

Now the 46-year-old is still brushing up on major policy fights in his hard-fought race against Democrat Johnny Garcia — baffling local politicos who believed a different Republican, popular state Rep. John Lujan (R-San Antonio), would be their next congressman.

San Antonio’s congressional delegation is already on track to lose much experience this year, and Lujan would have been among the most seasoned policymakers.

Instead De La Cruz is leaning on connections most freshman lawmakers could only dream of — if Republicans can pull off their Texas two-step.

“I think President Trump decided to endorse my campaign because we don’t need another establishment politician,” he told the San Antonio Report in a May 14 interview. “We have new challenges in this country, and I think it’s going to take new blood to overcome those.”

A background in security

Carlos De La Cruz spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, starting as a dog handler before moving over to intelligence.

He was raised by a single mom in a family that wasn’t big on politics growing up, and enlisted at age 18.

First De La Cruz spent time on the U.S.-Mexico border doing drug interdiction with K9s.

“We got to experience finding drugs every single day,” he said of his time at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

Later he went to the Middle East as an explosive dog handler.

“That was kind of my expertise, in force protection,” he said. “Being outdoors, it was great as a young guy in the military, [but eventually] I wanted to get back indoors.”

De La Cruz said he was allowed to cross-train to move into intelligence, where he again deployed to the Middle East and other locations — before ending his career at a secretive facility known as Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland’s Security Hill.

Since retiring from the Air Force in 2017, De La Cruz has worn many hats.

He opened a kickboxing gym on the Northside for six years, completed an IT certification and did contract work for the Defense Health Agency, securing buildings in the San Antonio-area.

“My wife and I are very fortunate to be in a position where I don’t have to work, but I do it because I want to,” he told the San Antonio Report in March.

A new seat for San Antonio

If De La Cruz makes it to Congress, Johnson says he’ll have all the work he wants.

“We’ve got a lot of jobs Carlos can do. He can help on veterans issues, he could do Foreign Affairs, he could do our Armed Services Committee,” Johnson told reporters at an Aug. 26 campaign stop at a VA post in San Antonio. “Especially when you’re in a big community like this with so many veterans’ interests, he will be a great voice.”

San Antonio’s delegation just lost its last veteran when U.S. Tony Gonzales (R-San Antonio) was forced to resign after a high-profile affair with a staffer.

It’s also been left without a single appropriator, after new GOP maps cut the Bexar County portion out of U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar‘s (D-Laredo) district, and two other seasoned lawmakers aren’t running for reelection in their current districts.

Another exodus in Congress means Texas will need to start rebuilding its clout in 2027

Against that backdrop, GOP leaders have high hopes for De La Cruz.

He’s run a relatively low-visibility campaign so far, but Johnson characterized him as a family man who won’t deliver any more scandal to the San Antonio delegation.

De La Cruz opened a business with his wife, he said, and they mentored young people together in the evenings.

“You will never ever have to worry about what Carlos De La Cruz is doing in Washington,” Johnson said. “You will never turn on the news in the morning and see him say something that embarrasses you or the district.”

Johnson also hopes De La Cruz could rise in the ranks of a reshaped Republican conference — if both of their careers make it that far.

Trump makes last-minute pitch in San Antonio after upending the GOP map

The 35th Congressional District is currently one of the biggest battlegrounds on the U.S. House map, with Democrats pouring in money to try to help Garcia.

Johnson has called it the “whole enchilada” in the GOP’s efforts to hold the U.S. House this year, and suggested he might even retire to Louisiana if he can’t hold onto his speaker’s gavel.

But the new San Antonio-area district was designed to support a Republican — pulling red territory from Monica De La Cruz’s district to combine with Bexar County’s outskirts.

Democrats’ still need a significant wave election to claim it this year, and risk losing it from their map if they fall short.

That’s part of why De La Cruz has received fundraising help from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and campaigned alongside VA Secretary Doug Collins.

He’s now appeared multiple times with Johnson, and President Donald Trump even came to San Antonio on his behalf this month — the president’s second time campaigning with him since De La Cruz launched his campaign a year ago.

If it all works out, Johnson said, De La Cruz could hold onto the San Antonio-based seat for years to come.

“He’ll be able to work his way through seniority — he’s going to have a long great tenure in Congress,” Johnson said.