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The 2020 Democratic Primary in TX-28th, a contest between the longtime Pro-Gun Anti-Choice Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar against the Progressive Jessica Cisneros was a race which pitted the Progressive faction of the Democratic party against what they called "Trump's favorite Democrat"
The race took on a spiteful tinge, with Cuellar leveraging his support from Oil and pharmaceutical companies and Cisneros from Progressive Groups, Unions and politicians such as the AFL-CIO, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Julián Castro in an attempt to best one another.
Moreover, the race showed significant policy disagreements between the two, with Cisneros calling for programs such as Medicare for All and the Green New Deal and Cisneros echoing republican attacks calling them "Socialist"—both candidates combined spent $5 million to get their message out.
In the end, Cuellar would win the primary by 4%, dissapointing progressives as they thought the high turnout of the primary would hand them the seat.
In the General Election Henry Cuellar won a comanding Victory over Sandra Whitten, performing around as strongly as Hillary Clinton in the seat as then Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden Collapsed in it compared to Clinton.
In 2022, Cisneros Sought a rematch with Cuellar, and it turned out much closer than her first run, holding himCuellar to a runnoff by 2% and then losing by only 0.6%
Primary Round 1
Primary Runoff
In a near complete Rehash of the 2020 primary, with progressives suporting Cisneros and Establishment Dems suporting Cuellar, Abortion rights took an increased importance in the race due to the leacked opinion in Dobbs v Jackson which Overturned the landmark Roe v Wade decision.
Highlighting Cuellar's Pro-life views Cisneros argued that Cuellar disagreed with democrats on too many important issues to be renominated by the party—enohasizing abortion to this effect.
Cisneros also attacked Cuellar on a recent FBI raid on his home—which Cuellar at the time claimed was not directed at him, but has recently resulted in a criminal indictment against him.
Despite all of this, Cisneros lost by just over half a Percent, which like her first loss, was caused by Cuellar's whoping margin in the rural hispanic parts of south Texas in Hidalgo, Zapata and Starr counties.
In the general Cuellar faced Ted Cruz staffer Cassy Garcia, in a race that Republicans and Democrats viewed as competitive after Joe Biden had collapsed in the region
To this effect, amongst the beleif of a red wave, Cuellar spent $6.1 Million throughout the cycle while Garcia spent $3.4 Million throghout the cycle in an attempt to win the seat
Like Cisneros, Garcia attempted to use Cuellar's FBI raid against him, however, Cuellar—using local issues as well as protecting the oil and gas industry and boosting law enforcement and border security—was able to beat back these accusation and secure a 9th term
- https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/19/politics/henry-cuellar-jessica-cisneros-texas-28-primary-rematch/index.html
- https://www.npr.org/2022/05/25/1101016123/cuellar-cisneros-texas-28th-congressional-district-democratic-runoff-results
- https://www.tpr.org/news/2020-03-04/henry-cuellar-narrowly-defeats-jessica-cisneros-in-tx-28-democratic-primary
- https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/politics/article/Cuellar-takes-early-lead-over-primary-challenger-15103380.php
- https://www.opensecrets.org/races/candidates?cycle=2022&id=TX28
- https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/08/henry-cuellar-cassy-garcia-tx-28/
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