Texas politics can be tricky to navigate. From false narratives to conspiracy theories, it all comes out during primaries and elections. The ads offered by political action committees (PACs) and the candidates’ own teams can border on the comically insane, especially during Republican primaries, where they pull out all the stops bashing each other. However, establishment Democrats have also weaponized that strategy against progressives.
In 2020, conservative Democrat Henry Cuellar faced a challenge from progressive Jessica Cisneros. At the time, Nancy Pelosi invoked the strategy of House Democratic leadership, supporting sitting incumbents, referring to Cuellar as a “valued member of our caucus.” Even after his house was raided by the FBI in 2022, during the primaries, Pelosi reiterated her support of him over Cisneros.
Cuellar supported Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s deployment of the buoy barriers in the Rio Grande to stop migrants from legally seeking asylum once on US soil. While he is against a border wall, he supports raising the salaries of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Border Patrol agents. He also supports enhanced cooperation between local and state law enforcement agencies and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Despite supporting same-sex marriage, Cuellar voted for the anti-Trans “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports” Act in early 2025. His anti-abortion positions have been well-known, and he was the only Democrat to vote against the Women’s Health Protection Act in 2021. Cuellar has supported a ban on abortion after 20 weeks and, in 2023, along with three other Democrats, voted to end a policy that covered travel costs for service members seeking abortions.
He’s proud of his bipartisanship.
Despite all of this, Pelosi led the charge for the party to support him over Cisneros, who campaigned on humane immigration policy, access to affordable healthcare, a $15 minimum wage, and abortion rights. She did all that on what she called a “people-powered” campaign. Despite the power and money behind Cuellar, he barely edged out Cisneros in two primary challenges. Instead of Democrats exploiting Cisneros’ success and promoting a candidate that doesn’t resemble a Republican and regularly votes against his party, they’re still supporting Cuellar.
Now, with Trump preemptively pardoning him, it seems Cuellar is now bought by the fascist regime in power. It’s unlikely Trump will back him in the general election, but throwing his hat in the ring during the primaries does not bode well for any challengers. Cisneros now has a lot of political clout in the current primaries. It’s not good clout, but it’s clout nonetheless.
Enter, Ricardo Villareal, a slight progressive Democrat who is challenging Cuellar in the upcoming 2026 primary. Villareal is essentially the opposite of Cuellar in many ways. He, like Cuellar, believes a border wall is pointless and advocates for technological solutions to monitor the border, ethical enforcement polices, and is against local and state agencies working with ICE.
His policy platform can be found here.
Villareal was born and raised in Laredo, near the Texas-Mexico border. He is a physician, Army veteran, and public policy advocate who describes himself as a lifelong Texan aiming to be a “serious grown-up” and “not a politician”. Villareal has the experience and the chops to challenge Cuellar, but it appears Democratic Party leaders have their chosen one. However, their favorite doesn’t represent the plurality of Texans or Americans in general.
If the focus is on meeting bigotry in the middle, Cuellar is your man. But if Democrats really wanted to protect who they claim to welcome into their so-called “big tent,” they should stop attacking and undermining progressives who can win in Texas in favor of candidates who will attack women’s rights, trans rights, sweep healthcare under the rug, and help blur the lines between the separation of law enforcement powers outlined in the Tenth Amendment.
The last thing the country needs is more Joe Manchins, Kirsten Sinemas, or John Fettermans.
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