Bobby Pulido is on the November 3, 2026 ballot against Republican Monica De La Cruz in Texas District 15, turning a once-quiet South Texas seat into one of the closest races in the country. The Democratic singer and longtime Tejano figure is now trying to convert name recognition into votes in a district that could decide which party holds the balance of power in Congress.
That is why his name is drawing attention now: Pulido won the Democratic primary on March 3, 2026, with 67.5% of the vote over Ada Cuellar, and he enters the general election as the challenger to an incumbent who has already won once in this district. De La Cruz has represented the seat since 2023 and won in 2024 by 14 points, but Cook Political Report has classified the district as a toss-up, according to Latin Times, making this one of the rare House races where a late shift in turnout could matter.
Pulido’s path to the ballot began on September 17, 2025, when he announced his candidacy and argued that South Texas was being squeezed by the decline in tourism from Mexico and by fear inside immigrant communities. He proposed comprehensive immigration reform and the expulsion of people with criminal records who are in the country without permission, while also leaning on the identity that made him famous in the 1990s with “Desvelado” and “Se Murió de Amor.” Tribune has reported that he has received five Latin Grammy nominations, 22 Tejano Music Awards nominations and won eight Tejano Music Awards early in his career.
The district itself helps explain the stakes. After redistricting by the state legislature, it stretches from McAllen to central Texas, and Hispanics make up 75% of its citizen voting-age population, according to the Tribune. That makes every shift in enthusiasm or turnout meaningful, especially in a race tied to the broader fight for control of the U.S. House in Texas.
But Pulido’s campaign has not been a clean homecoming. reported that his last five concerts were in Mexico, and his spokesperson said he has only United States citizenship. He performed at La Cura Fest on March 15 in Hermosillo, Sonora, then closed the Rodeo stage and joined Carín León onstage to sing “Desvelado,” a reminder of how deeply his career still runs through Mexico as well as South Texas.
That split has given De La Cruz an opening. She has centered her reelection campaign on border security, agriculture, energy and the economy, and she mocked the pop-culture angle of the race by writing on X that the election should not be decided by who can animate a quinceañera better. Pulido shot back, “Don’t threaten me with a good time,” while his campaign said it had received nearly 1,000 invitations to quinceañeras in the district.
He is carrying celebrity into a campaign that has also drawn scrutiny. San Antonio Current reported criticism over offensive social media posts and over the presence of a musician convicted of a sex offense in his band, issues that complicate the cleanest version of his pitch to voters who know him first as a performer. Whether that background helps him cross over in a district De La Cruz carried by double digits last time is the question that will be answered when results come in on election night.
For now, the race is less a test of whether Bobby Pulido can draw a crowd than whether he can turn that crowd into a governing coalition in a district that has already proven it can move quickly. If he does not, De La Cruz keeps the seat; if he does, South Texas becomes one of the loudest warning signs in the House map.
