McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Familiar faces won their party’s nominations in congressional races on the South Texas border in Tuesday’s primary elections.
With 88% of the votes, freshman Congresswoman Monica De La Cruz easily secured the Republican nomination for Texas’ 15th Congressional District, according to early results from the Texas Secretary of State’s office.
She was challenged by Edinburg teacher Vangela Churchill, who received 11% of votes.
De La Cruz received 30,943 votes; Churchill garnered 4,135 votes in this district, which spans seven counties of South Texas from the border to San Antonio outskirts.
“I am so honored to once again be the Republican nominee for District 15,” De La Cruz said at her election watch party held in McAllen.
She said she wants to return to Washington to continue working to force Mexico to pay its water debt to the United States, which is affecting her district and other parts of Rio Grande Valley.
De La Cruz campaigned against illegal immigration and says Congress must reform asylum laws.
De La Cruz will face McAllen entrepreneur Michelle Vallejo, who won the Democratic nomination for Texas’ 15th Congressional on Tuesday, beating out lawyer John Villarreal Rigney.
With all votes in, Vallejo captured 74.7%, or 21,408 votes, to Rigney’s 25.3%, or 7,250 votes.
“It’s clear that our campaign to lower costs for families, expand access to affordable and quality health care, protect Social Security and Medicare, and restore reproductive freedoms resonated with voters and led to our resounding victory,” Vallejo said. “My family has lived our Sueño Americano, and I want to make sure the next generation of South Texans has the same opportunity to lift themselves up as we did.”
Vallejo beat Rigney in a runoff for the Democratic nomination in 2022. However, she lost in the general election, sending De La Cruz to Congress.
Vallejo is supported by LUPE Votes.
GOP primary for 34th Congressional District
Former Congresswoman Maya Flores won the Republican nomination to once again run to represent Texas’ 34th Congressional District.
Flores received 81.18%, or 18,298 votes over a field of three other candidates, according to early returns.
The district includes Brownsville, parts of McAllen and the Gulf Coast border.
In an interview with CBS4 on Tuesday night, Flores called it “a huge win.”
“I need to hold onto my faith and my family and embrace that. I need to hold onto God,” she said.
Flores is the wife of a U.S. Border Patrol agent and she staunchly opposes asylum laws and what she calls “open borders.” She wants the federal government to stop allowing asylum-seekers into the United States, which she says costs the country billions of dollars and takes away from American jobs.
Flores won the seat in a special election in June 2022 but lost it five months later in the general election to U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, D-Texas, who switched from District 15 to District 34 when the district lines were redrawn.
In November, she’ll again run against Gonzalez, who was unopposed in the Democratic primaries.
Democratic primary for Texas House District 80
An open seat for the Democratic nomination for Texas House District 80, which includes Uvalde and parts of Webb County is going to a runoff between Rosie Cuellar, a municipal judge in Rio Bravo, Texas, near Laredo, and Cecilia Castellano, a businesswoman and public education supporter.
With 100% of votes in, Castellano captured 27.06% of the votes, or 3,420; Cuellar won 25.48% or 3,221 votes. With neither earning more than 50%, it now will be decided in a runoff election. Originally there were five vying for the crowded field for the open seat that includes Uvalde and parts of Webb County.
Incumbent, Rep. Tracy King, a Democrat from Uvalde, is not seeking reelection.
Cuellar is the younger sister of Congressman Henry Cuellar, of Laredo, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary for Texas’ 28th Congressional District.
Lazaro Garza Jr. and Jay Furman are headed to a runoff for the Republican nomination for Texas’ 28th Congressional District. The winner will face Rep. Cuellar in November.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at SSanchez@BorderReport.com.
