South Texas congressional Democrats Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar glide toward reelection

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EDINBURG — Vicente Gonzalez and Henry Cuellar were headed toward reelection to Congress, overcoming Republican challenges to flip traditionally Democratic districts in South Texas.

Eric Flores, a former prosecutor and National Guardsman, who challenged Gonzelez, conceded Tuesday night shortly before 9:30 p.m.

Gonzalez, a Democrat from McAllen, will serve a sixth term in Congress, the third as the representative for the 34th District, after previously representing the neighboring 15th Congressional District from 2017 to 2023. The district stretches from Brownsville to Corpus Christi.

Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, held a wide margin over his Republican opponent, Tano Tijerina, according to unofficial results. 

The likely victories for the two moderate Democrats dashed Republican hopes of making further inroads with Texas Hispanics, the support from whom helped propel President Donald Trump to victory in 2024.

Texas’ 34th and 28th Congressional Districts were eyed by Republicans as potential pick-ups after the party made inroads in South Texas during the 2024 election. That year, Trump won 14 out of 18 border counties and captured 55% of statewide Latino voters who make up the majority of the population in the two districts.

Hoping to increase the GOP’s chances of winning the congressional races in the region, Texas Republicans redistricted five districts in Texas last year, including the 34th and 28th.

During the campaign, Gonzalez sought to emphasize Flores’ ties to President Donald Trump, putting up a billboard featuring the president’s endorsement that closely resembled Flores’ own campaign signs, according to a report from the Washington Sun.

The Flores campaign issued a cease and desist notice to the billboard company, alleging the Gonzalez camp was attempting to confuse voters.

But if Flores had been trying to distance himself from Trump, the campaign made a U-turn last week when Flores appeared alongside the president during a rally in Corpus Christi.

At the opposite end of the region, Tijerina, the top elected official in the county and a former Democrat, hoped to unseat Cuellar in the 28th Congressional District.

Tijerina, who joined the Republican Party a month after Trump’s historic near-sweep of the border counties in 2024, hoped to topple the so-called “King of Laredo” as Cuellar has been nicknamed.

However, most polling showed Cuellar ahead of Tijerina and, in a sign they were losing confidence at their chances at victory, national Republicans pulled $3 million in ad spending in the district.

This is a developing story.