Photo: Getty Images/Medios y Media
The Tejano star says Trump-era raids, rising costs, and health care concerns helped convince him to challenge a Republican-held seat.
Tejano music star Bobby Pulido has thrown his signature cowboy hat into the race to secure the Democratic nomination for Texas’ 15th Congressional District.
The two-time Latin Grammy winner and current 2026 Grammy nominee for his album “Bobby Pulido & Friends” is retiring from his renowned career as a Tejano singer-songwriter.
He’ll face ER Dr. Ada Cuellar in the Democratic primary on March 3 with the goal of taking on Republican Monica de la Cruz, the district’s current representative, who has held the seat since 2022.
Pulido says the heavily Hispanic district swung to Trump because voters believed his promises to lower inflation and deport only “the worst of the worst.” Instead, he says, his neighbors are being battered by higher prices, job cuts, immigration raids, and a representative who’s standing by and watching as the Republican party ruins lives.
Pulido tells COURIER Texas in this wide-ranging interview why he became convinced that it was time to leave a career he loved to fight for his fellow Texans.
Quitting a 30-year music career to run for Congress
“I’ve always wanted to be involved in politics, even when I was in high school. I studied political science at St. Mary’s University, but music’s in my blood. My dad, Roberto Pulido, is a famous singer, and I recorded a song with him. I took a fly on the music business and my first CD—Desvelado—went platinum.
“Fast forward to 2022 and the night that Monica de la Cruz was elected to be my representative in the House. I didn’t have faith in her. Since then, she has never done a town hall. I’ve never seen her do a substantive interview answering questions of her constituents.
“Monica de la Cruz voted for Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill—and we’re going to suffer from it.
“She did not fight for her constituents, and because of the Big Beautiful Bill, a lot of people I know personally here are going to lose their health coverage, and they are terrified. It really saddens me.
“Her vote for that tells me she’s just a puppet for the Republicans, and I don’t think that best serves us.
“We need to flip this district and flip the House of Representatives to Democrats—it’s so important.”
Fans, family show support for shift to politics
“My wife, Mariana, said, ‘OK, when I met you, you were a musician. But I can see how passionate you are, and I think that God has a plan for you, and if that’s what you want to do, I’ll back you up 100%.’
“My dad’s 75, and he’s my biggest fan. He goes with me on the campaign trail.
“My three older sons, ages 28, 26, and 19, are very supportive of what I’m doing. They join me whenever they can, but they are doing their thing. One son is in nursing school, one works full time in mortgage lending, and the other is in college. My youngest son is just 6.”
“I’ve gotten a lot of support and a lot of sadness. I haven’t really seen anyone angry about it—it’s just like, oh man, we’re going to miss you, we want your music.
“I have fans who have volunteered to work on my campaign. But having a fan base doesn’t seal the deal. Name recognition is a good thing, but it only gets your foot in the door. You have to go out there and convince people about what you want to fight for and how you want to represent them.
“Even if they are your fans, they will not vote for you, and so I don’t take this lightly.”
Why Pulido thinks he can win the 15th district
Editor’s note: Monica de la Cruz won her seat by 14 points in the 2024 election, and Trump carried the district. But Obama also carried it twice, and a majority of residents voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“My district is extremely, extremely competitive, even with the Republicans’ new 2024 redistricting.
“People thought about Trump, this guy’s a billionaire, he’s gonna come and help our economy, so we gotta vote for this guy. That’s it in a nutshell—what made Hispanics go toward Trump in 2024. A substantial amount of people are disappointed.
“There’s a lot of anger here about the deportations, and it angers me that they’re doing this. That’s not what Trump ran on. He said they were gonna get the ‘bad guys.’ We have a ton of people here that are legal US residents.
“Yes, they are deporting people who have green cards. They are not ‘bad guys.’ People here have lost family members.
“I don’t think many people here saw the Republican National Convention where they had mass deportation signs. Now, they’re not happy—they feel like they were duped.”
Focusing on the economy, immigration, health care
“The biggest issue here is the economy, and it goes hand in hand with immigration. The majority of small business owners here are Hispanic. And you can’t run a restaurant if you don’t have workers. And if you have a construction company and you don’t have a workforce, you aren’t gonna be happy about it.
“Not every worker in construction is undocumented. Many have green cards but aren’t citizens. But when a workplace is raided, they take everyone. Everyone gets wind of it—other construction crews hear about the raid.
“Construction workers are terrified to go to work, so they don’t. The builder says, ‘Man, you have your green cards,’ but the workers say, ‘Yeah, but they took those other guys, and what if they’re gonna cancel those green cards?’
“Affordability is a big problem down here. But if you’re not building houses because you don’t have a workforce, there’s not enough supply to keep houses affordable.
“Politicians have bent over backward to please Wall Street, and Main Street is just drowning. Ever since Citizens United, politicians have become beholden to corporate America—but they’re forgetting people’s lives on Main Street.
“I’m running on term limits. You should be afraid to lose your job, because that means you’re gonna do what’s right for your people.
“People here voted for ‘drill, baby, drill’ because they thought Trump was gonna give them more gas and oil jobs, but the price of oil has gone down and a lot of people have lost their jobs. A lot of these companies in Texas are just telling you, go home, and we’ll call you when the price goes up again—the least they could do is pay their people severance packages.
“I think we need both—oil and gas, and green energy. Extremism on either side is something we don’t need right now. We need common sense and nonpartisan beliefs to find real solutions for our constituents and communities.
“I’d like to get the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act premiums back. When the premiums skyrocket, most people I know are gonna drop their insurance coverage. They can’t afford it. So what’s going to happen when they get sick? They’re going to go into the ER, where it’s gonna cost the taxpayers even more money.
“People are gonna punish Republicans with their vote—but I don’t want to punish people with their lives. We need to take on the health insurance companies. They are too powerful—they’re only compensating hospitals for 20% of what they bill. It has to be reformed. I’m all for listening to suggestions on both sides of the aisle to get back to making health care affordable for people.”
Gun control, DEI, and school vouchers among top issues
Editor’s note: Edinburg, Texas native Freddie Gonzalez, who sacrificed his life in Vietnam and earned the Medal of Honor, was removed from the Naval History and Heritage Command website in April as part of the Trump administration’s purge of so-called “DEI” content on government sites.
“This riled up a lot of people. Freddy Gonzalez is a war hero—Edinburg’s favorite son. He’s everything to us. And because of this elimination of DEI, they took all of his accomplishments out of the military record of Hispanics in battle.
“For Christ’s sake, this was from the Vietnam War—it has nothing to do with DEI. And Monica de la Cruz stayed silent. She said nothing to criticize that.”
“In South Texas, it’s not if you own a gun—it’s how many guns you have. You can’t come out trying to ban certain things; people don’t like that here. I have to reassure people that I’m not gonna take away their guns.
“I have an arsenal of weapons. I’m not one of those Republicans who wants to pose with my arsenal—I don’t believe in that—but I do own a lot of firearms. I don’t think we need more gun control; we need more effective gun control.
“When you ask the bank for a loan, they ask for references because they don’t trust your word. When you go to buy a gun, they shouldn’t just take your word for it. We need more effective legislation to keep guns out of the hands of the troubled people who are committing these atrocities.”
“I went to public school. My three older boys went to public school. I can’t stand school vouchers.
“My wife is a Montessori school guide, so my 6-year-old goes to a Montessori school. But I’m not asking for vouchers to pay for that. I don’t want to go hurt kids that need this education.”
Raising corporate taxes and cutting debt
“When you have a president like Donald Trump, he keeps raising our debt—it’s $38 trillion right now.
“I balance my budget at home. I live within my means. I think the best stewards of our money in office should do the same with the people’s money. And I don’t think that’s a conservative or liberal thing.
“The last president to balance our national budget was Democrat Bill Clinton—he did it by raising corporate taxes to 39%. The Republicans have gaslit us into thinking they’re better on the economy, but 10 of the last 11 recessions started under Republican presidents—they’re worse.
“I think tariffs can be a strategic tool that has to be used carefully. I’m not against every single tariff. There may be some tariffs necessary to level the playing field.
“What I’m not for is an unserious threat of tariffs—a tariff is 35%, no, it’s 50%, now it’s gonna be 85%. Businesses cannot make a long-term plan when you aren’t serious about this.
“I feel like tariffs were more of a grudge for him (Donald Trump) to try to get people to do his bidding.”
“The first task I have to do is secure the Democratic nomination to run against Republican Monica de la Cruz on Tuesday, March 3. I feel good about my chances, but I am not an arrogant person—I am working throughout the district tirelessly.
Editor’s note: Bobby Pulido’s Democratic primary opponent is Dr. Ada Cuellar, an ER doctor and single mom from Weslaco. To clarify, she is not related to US Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo). She lives outside the district she’s running in—which is legal for candidates for Congress.
“My opponent in the primary doesn’t live in our district—she actually lives in Vicente Gonzalez’s district, the 34th. That’s actually legal, but it’s something called ‘carpetbagging.’
“My district has 11 counties. I’ve already visited nine of them and will go to the other two in January. Every county we go to, we make friends. South Texas is my home.
“We’ve been doing these Ranch Halls—we throw some meat on the pit, play some Tejano music, and I give constituents a stump speech and answer their questions. People really appreciate that.
“We did our first Taqueria Tour because there are taquerias up and down the district. They’re meet-and-greets, and we’ll be doing more in January.
“I’ve done a bunch of podcasts, including with a MAGA Christian pastor. I do interviews. I’m out there making my case. On a grassroots level, we’re doing yard sign giveaways, and every time we announce a new location, cars line up. We’ve given away an average of 350 signs at each giveaway.
“I am not overlooking the March 3 Democratic primary.”
To find your voting options for the 2026 elections, visit couriertexas.com/ballot-ready.
