Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, the last pro-life Democrat in the U.S. House, won more votes than his pro-abortion challenger Tuesday in the state primary election.
On Wednesday morning, the Texas Tribune showed Cuellar with a clear lead over Jessica Cisneros, an attorney who wants to expand abortions and force taxpayers to pay for them.
However, Texas requires the primary victor to receive at least 50 percent of the votes, and Cuellar is right at the edge of that mark. At this point, the Tribune says the election is too close to call, meaning Cuellar and Cisneros could face a runoff election. The AP already is reporting that there will be a runoff election in May, though that is not yet certain.
As of about 9 a.m. Wednesday, Cuellar had 26,016 votes (50 percent) while Cisneros had 23,620 (45.4 percent), according to the Tribune. Other news outlets, including the New York Times and Washington Post, reported Cuellar had 23,552 votes early Wednesday morning, but the vote tally on the official Texas election results website matches that of the Tribune, with 26,016 votes or 49.98 percent.
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Cuellar is a target of the billion-dollar pro-abortion lobby, which is trying to weed out Democrat lawmakers who refuse to support taxpayer-funded abortions up to birth.
According to the AP: “The race was among the most heated in Texas’ first-in-the-nation primary. Cuellar is among the most conservative Democrats in Congress, and a Cisneros victory would bring a seismic liberal shift to the district that runs from San Antonio to the Texas border.”
In September, Cuellar was the only House Democrat who voted no on a radical pro-abortion bill that pro-life leaders say would force every state to legalize the killing of unborn babies in abortions up to birth. Cuellar also consistently has supported the Hyde Amendment, which bans taxpayer funding for elective abortions in Medicaid and other federal programs.
His primary opponent would do the opposite. Cisneros told the Huffington Post that she will work hard to defeat the Hyde Amendment, if elected, because abortions are a “human right.”
Cisneros, a “progressive” attorney, has received endorsements from major pro-abortion groups including NARAL and EMILY’s List as well as from U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Other Democrat leaders, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who previously supported Cuellar, were unusually quiet ahead of the election while “progressive Democrats, on the other hand, are out in full force for Cisneros,” the Huffington Post reported in February.
Though Cisneros tried to portray the pro-life Democrat as too conservative, it is more likely that voters will view her own position that way. The 28th Congressional District of Texas is nearly 80 percent Hispanic, and they tend to be strongly pro-life. Recent reports have highlighted how many Hispanic voters are leaving the Democrat Party because of its extreme pro-abortion stance.
Very few Americans share that view. A 2021 Marist poll found 58 percent of Americans oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in the U.S. Additionally, 77 percent oppose using tax dollars to fund abortions in other countries. A 2016 Harvard/Politico poll found that most voters, including a strong majority of low-income voters, oppose taxpayer-funded abortions.
Recent polls also show public support for greater legal protections for unborn babies, such as heartbeat laws and bans on abortion after the first trimester.
