The Blast- Fri, Nov. 21, 2025

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The Blast | Texas Tribune
November 21, 2025

By Renzo Downey and The Texas Tribune Politics Team

17 days until the 2026 primary candidate filing deadline
71 days until the TX-18 runoff
102 days until the 2026 primary election

IN TODAY’S BLAST

  • Bobby Pulido under attack on abortion in TX-15 Dem primary

  • Huffman: There’s distrust between OAG and LEOs

  • More from the forum: “Sharia courts,” “Islamists” on watch

  • Austin budget cuts and an audit petition

BOBBY PULIDO UNDER ATTACK ON ABORTION IN TX-15 DEM PRIMARY

The Democratic primary to challenge U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz is heating up with Ada Cuellar running an ad attacking Tejano star Bobby Pulido over his stance on abortion.

The Cuellar-Pulido race could be one of the hottest Democratic primaries at Texas’ congressional level. Congressional Democrats have once again identified De La Cruz, a second-term Republican representing the 15th Congressional District, as their top target in Texas.

In a digital ad calling herself “the Democrat for Congress,” Cuellar attacks both De La Cruz and Pulido, saying she is the only candidate who would vote to codify Roe v. Wade. The ad includes a social media post from De La Cruz celebrating the overturning of Roe v. Wade and comments from Pulido deriding abortion.

“It bothers me if people say, oh, you’re pro-abortion, because that’s not what I’m — I’m not. I’m not promoting it,” Pulido said. “I don’t even agree with it.”

The ad has two versions, one accompanied with English text and one with Spanish text.

Cuellar (no relation to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, in neighboring TX-28) is a doctor. She claims she is the only candidate running on women’s health care.

“Women in Texas shouldn’t fear that a miscarriage could be a death sentence, yet neither Monica De La Cruz nor Bobby Pulido are willing to stand up for them,” Cuellar said in a press release.

Pulido’s comments came from an interview with Jorge and Paola Ramos last week in which he called Texas’ abortion law “draconian” and that he wouldn’t tell someone how to raise their kid who might seek an abortion. However, he said he doesn’t personally support abortion, citing his Catholic upbringing.

“I just don’t feel that it’s my place to tell somebody else what they can do,” Pulido said. “I hate the fact that anybody would do it, but I understand that everybody has their own reality to live.”

Pulido, a Latin Grammy winner and Grammy-nominated artist, is a dream candidate in the eyes of some Democratic operatives. He’s a political newcomer running like a rural Blue Dog Democrat in a potential swing seat in South Texas. And with his beloved career and well-known family name, he began his campaign with a leg-up as far as name I.D. and first impressions.

A House Majority PAC poll in September found Pulido trailing De La Cruz 41%-38% in the general election. And that was under the gerrymander passed over the summer. With the shift back to the old lines, election prognosticators at Sabato’s Crystal Ball changed their TX-15 forecast from Safe R to Likely R this week.

Pulido has split with Democrats over how hard to hammer on immigration. And campaigning on a rhetorical middleground on abortion has caused problems for him, even outside of Ada Cuellar’s new ad.

“There’s people that I know, dear friends of mine, like, dear friends of mine, that said, ‘I’m not going to endorse you because of this,’ one issue,” Pulido told the Ramoses.

He didn’t clarify whether those friends refuse to endorse him because he is too supportive or too opposed to abortion.

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HUFFMAN: THERE’S DISTRUST BETWEEN OAG AND LEOS

State Sen. Joan Huffman says not all has been great between law enforcement and the Texas Attorney General’s Office under Ken Paxton.

At a recent GOP AG candidate forum, Huffman, a Houston Republican running to succeed Paxton, said he has done great in his 10-plus years on the job. He has effectively gone after “woke” corporations, winning the state a good bit of money, she continued. However, she said she said the OAG needs to have more of a focus on law enforcement.

“There is a distrust now that exists between local law enforcement and the attorney general’s office,” Huffman said. “That has been kind of percolating there for a long time, really over a decade.”

Huffman has risen the ranks to become a top senator since she was first sworn in in 2008. She spent three terms as chair of the powerful State Affairs and Finance committees, was a three-time vice chair of the Criminal Justice Committee and chair of the Jurisprudence Committee. She’s become a go-to senator on legal matters and carried Gov. Greg Abbott’s bail reform package through the Senate.

If someone’s going to know the relationship between the attorney general and local law enforcement, it’s Huffman. However, she didn’t expound on the supposed distrust between the two.

Huffman’s comment, flagged by conservative activist Luke Macias, was part of her answer to whether Paxton was too activist or not activist enough during his tenure.

Throughout the race, Huffman has largely campaigned on her experience as a prosecutor and criminal judge even though the bulk of the OAG’s work is on the civil side. In her answer assessing Paxton’s track record, she said she would “bring more law enforcement activity into the Attorney General’s Office,” helping local law enforcement and prosecutors in prosecuting cases.

MORE FROM THE FORUM: “SHARIA COURTS,” “ISLAMISTS” ON WATCH

American Jewish Conservatives and The Dallas Express put on the candidate forum on Tuesday, after Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as foreign terrorist organizations. That news became a core part of the candidate forum.

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a GOP AG candidate from Austin, was in Washington to vote on the Epstein bill. But in an introductory video, he focused on a bill he filed last month to ban foreign nationals who observe Sharia from entering the country.

“It’s not just EPIC City,” Roy said, referring to the planned development in Collin County. “It’s an organized attack.”

Candidate Aaron Reitz said he would overwhelm “Islamists” with lawsuits.

“We are going to make it intolerable for them to even want to function in Texas,” he said. “They’re just going to self deport, either back overseas or back to Ilhan Omar’s district,” referring to the Somalia-born Muslim Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota.

Reitz also accused lawmakers like Huffman and their fellow AG candidate, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, R-Galveston, of thwarting Paxton “at every turn.”

Huffman said she passed a bill in 2017 to limit the power of Islamic tribunals, which Abbott and conservatives have railed against recently as “Sharia courts.”

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AUSTIN BUDGET CUTS AND AN AUDIT PETITION

The City of Austin slashed $95 million from its budget last night with cuts to parks, homelessness services, rental assistance and emergency medical services.

In his newsletter today, Mayor Kirk Watson said the vote rejecting Prop Q this month sent a message that residents want a balance between services and affordability.

“The reality is that city government can’t be all things to all people,” Watson said. “Even as the federal government has cut funding for critical needs, we can’t fill the holes that are created. Our sources of revenue are too limited to do that.”

Save Austin Now, led by Matt Mackowiak, launched a petition today calling for a charter amendment on the May 2026 ballot for an external audit of the city.

Save Austin Now said it is modeling its effort on Houston’s audit this year. Former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire and attorney Adam Loewy are part of the team supporting the petition.

“The lesson of the Prop Q defeat is that taxpayers do not currently trust our city leaders when it comes to the city budget and city spending,” Mackowiak said. “For trust to be restored, now and in the future, we need an external performance audit to improve affordability and efficiency, before the next budget year and then regularly afterwards.”

  • TX-19: Republican Abraham Enriquez of Lubbock, founder of Bienvenido, launched his campaign to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock.

  • Attorney Tony Buzbee says his firm will file a sexual assault case against the head of “one of the more influential lobbying and advocacy groups in Austin” next week. His client, who he called an “accomplished and respected young woman,” alleges she was coerced, sexually harassed and assaulted, then retaliated against.

  • Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are demanding that Mexico be held accountable for not meeting its minimum delivery obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty. Members of Texas’ congressional delegation called on the Trump administration last month to include the issue as part of its trade negotiations with Mexico — and possibly levy new sanctions.

  • Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has officially kicked his request for a stay against the block on the congressional gerrymander to the U.S. Supreme Court.

  • U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Austin, will be on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.

  • U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Austin Mayor Kirk Watson will volunteer with the Central Texas Food Bank to hand out Thanksgiving meal items on Monday.

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“Greg Abbott vows to spend mightily to turn Harris County red” by Alejandro Serrano of The Texas Tribune

“Lawsuit halts Texas’ $3 billion dementia fund” by Terri Langford of The Texas Tribune

Opinion: “Trump’s Texas gerrymander backfire” by the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board

Do you or someone in your office have a birthday you’d like mentioned? Email us.

(Nov. 22) State Rep. Jeff Barry, R-Pearland
(Nov. 22) State Rep. Cassandra Garcia Hernandez, D-Farmers Branch
(Nov. 23) State Rep. James Frank, R-Wichita Falls
(Nov. 23) State Rep. Caroline Harris Davila, R-Round Rock

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