In a stunning upset on a historic midterm night, Tejano music icon Bobby Pulido defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ 15th Congressional District. We revisit our conversation with him from the campaign trail in August 2026.

Texas holds the second-most electoral votes in the nation and often serves as a testing ground for policies that later spread across the U.S. When we spoke, the question was whether historically Republican Texas could turn blue, and whether Democrats could regain ground with Latino voters in South Texas. Pulido’s win offers one answer.

In this episode, Maria Hinojosa sits down with Pulido, then the Democratic nominee, to talk about the issues facing South Texas voters and why he believed his “moderate” brand of Democratic politics could bring Latino voters back to the party.

Latino USA is the longest-running news and culture radio program in the U.S., centering Latino stories and hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa.

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