Texas has increasingly become a Republican stronghold over the last election cycles. From the governor to the attorney general, conservatives dominate the government both at the state and the federal level. But Democrats are seeking to change that, and a House race in the Rio Grande Valley area is part of that.
Texas' 15th District comprises a narrow strip of land running from western Hidalgo County in the Rio Grande Valley, northwards to eastern Guadalupe County, to the east of San Antonio. In 2022, it stepped into the national spotlight as it flipped a traditionally Democratic seat in favor of Republican and avid Trump-ally, Monica De La Cruz, who also became the first Hispanic woman elected to represent the district.
De La Cruz is a Texas native who previously ran multiple small businesses and was the owner of an insurance agency. She was comfortably elected to Congress during the 2022 midterms after focusing on protecting farmers from damages she says were caused by illegal immigration. Despite previously being a staunch pro-life advocate, following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, she has gone silent on the matter, with the issue disappearing from her campaign website.
With the 2024 less than two weeks away, the seat for Texas' 15th District remains among the few competitive Congressional races in the state, a short list that is also occupied by the contests between Rep. Vicente Gonzalez and Mayra Flores in District 34; and Rep. Colin Allred and Sen. Ted Cruz who are vying to win one of the Lone Star State's Senate seats.
De La Cruz is facing strong Democratic opposition ahead of Nov. 5, being challenged by Michelle Vallejo, the co-owner of a local market and an ardent healthcare advocate. Vallejo says she believes abortion should be a right and that restrictions to reproductive rights in Texas limit freedom, while also arguing that the current healthcare system "leaves many South Texans uninsured, underinsured, and one trip to the hospital away from bankruptcy."
In November, the two women will face a rematch from the 2022 race for the District, where De La Cruz emerged victorious, defeating Vallejo 53.3% to 44.8%, according to Ballotpedia.
But amid a highly polarized political environment, reproductive rights coming into the forefront of the national conversation, and an unprecedented border crisis, Vallejo thinks this year will be different, and her district will turn blue once again.
She recently sat down with the Latin Times to discuss the state of the race, as well as key issues that are important to her campaign and community. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Latin Times: A recent poll reported by GQR showed you behind Monica De La Cruz by 3 points. With exactly two weeks to go until Election Day, how do you feel about the current state of your race?
Michelle Vallejo: I'm feeling very excited and motivated about all the work that we've done and the momentum that we're feeling on the ground. So my team and I are, probably not getting as many hours of sleep as we should, but we're just so motivated because of the conversations we are having with voters at the doors and at the polling locations, now that polls have been open as of yesterday here in Texas, they [conversations with voters] just so energizing. People are clear and very vocal about wanting a change, knowing that our current representative is not doing the job that we need them to be doing.
My opponent, her name is Monica de la Cruz, is a first year incumbent, and she's turned her back time and time again on our families and what we need in South Texas, she's voted to increase costs for groceries, increase costs for energy and housing. She likes to play games when it comes to issues on the border and immigration. There was a bipartisan border bill that she could have supported and made sure that it made it to the House floor that would have increased capacity for Border Patrol, increased capacity for immigration courts, as well as improved technology at our ports of entry to slow or stop the flow of fentanyl into our communities, among other things. We saw her just take orders from her party bosses and turn her back on that bill, and ultimately turn her back on us.
And a little bit about myself. I am a small business owner born and raised here in the district, and a proud daughter of Mexican immigrants, somebody who knows very well that people have really been struggling in my district, not just this cycle, but for all my life, I've heard people struggling with being able to make ends meet, and even more so now to where they're concerned about keeping their lights on, they are rationing their medication to be able to bring food to the table for their children. So for me, it's just very, very clear that we need a fighter in Congress who will be putting the needs of our families in South Texas first, putting politics aside.
LT: You ran against De La Cruz in 2022 and lost. Why do you think this year will be different? How has your campaign and approach changed?
MV: First, we know very well now that Monica has been in Congress for two years that she is not there to serve the people of South Texas. She's there to take orders from her party bosses, and also, when it comes to the issues that are top of mind for our families, she's completely, either unaware of what reality is for people in South Texas, or she frankly, doesn't care. One of the issues that comes up a lot as well when we're talking to voters is the threats and risks of Social Security and Medicare. We have over 100,000 seniors in our district, and she has supported an amendment that would make drastic cuts to both those programs.
Something else that my opponent has made very clear is that she's okay with repealing the cap on insulin drugs, and we are a district where the rate of diabetes is higher than any other place across the country. And for her to want to repeal the Affordable Care Act and Inflation Reduction Act, It just shows all of us that she's out of touch with what we need in the district. And I also think it's important to point out that here in Texas, we are a state where we've had a near total abortion ban almost a year even before the fall of Roe, it was about 10 months when SB-8 came into place here in Texas, that would criminalize doctors and hospitals for providing life saving care for anybody experiencing a risky, dangerous pregnancy. And she's in complete support of those kinds of bills, and she's in support of a national abortion ban. She celebrated these laws that have now forced women to have to flee the state of Texas to get the care that they need. And the reality is, for people in my district, they can't afford to go to another state, take days, if not weeks, off of work. And that's the reality that we're living in, that my opponent is completely out of touch with, and that's why I provide a different option, a better option, for voters when they're coming out to make their vote count this cycle.
LT: Abortion is among the top issues in this race, your campaign recently released an ad on the issue titled "Extreme Ban." Do you think this is a winning issue?
MV: You know, I see it not just as a winning issue. I see it as a life saving issue. I mean, here in Texas, we've had these near total abortion bans in place for longer than almost anywhere else across the country, and the situation is very real for us. We're not talking about hypothetical situations, about, "oh, if there was a national abortion ban, what it would look like in Texas." We know what it looks like, and it looks like women's lives are at risk. Unfortunately, women and moms are bleeding out in hospital parking lots. Also, we've seen an increase in teenage pregnancy in our state for the first time in 15 years. There's been a direct link of an increase in infant mortality rate to this law here in Texas. And also, I mean, this is absolutely gut wrenching, but the amount of women and girls that are victims of rape that have been forced to carry a pregnancy against their will is through the roof, it's in the tens of thousands, and those are just the ones that are reported. But also in my district, I know that so many women already don't have access to maternal care that is necessary to have a safe, viable pregnancy, and so it's just absolutely heartbreaking, the reality of what we're living. And so when we talk about this issue, it's not just a winning issue, but it's a critical issue for the lives of women and girls and the viability of entire families here in south Texas.
LT: De La Cruz has come into national attention for running with anti-abortion ideologies, but now that the issue has taken greater salience, it has disappeared from her website. Why do you think this is, and what do you make of this decision?
MV: The way that we know my opponent in the district is someone who completely runs away from her position and hides from talking to the community, won't take an invitation to the debate stage, won't have a public town hall to talk about these critical issues that are top of mind for our voters in the entire district, and to me, it's just very clear that she knows that she's out of step with our voters and with the reality of what people are living, and she wants to hide behind her ads, or wants to hide behind her campaign, as opposed to actually answering for what she's doing in Congress right now, as our member, as our representative. And I mean to me and to voters that I talk to every single day, her position is very clear. She's in support of a abortion ban, here in Texas, when SB-8 came into effect, she celebrated it. She said that it was a win for Texas, and that she was in support of it. And now that she has deleted things from her website, we don't forget where she stands. She's okay with the life of mothers being at risk. She's okay with women who are victims of incest and rape being forced to carry pregnancy to term, even when their life is in jeopardy. And she's okay with the government telling us what to do.
LT: You've mentioned how you support securing the southern border while treating migrants with dignity. What is your current assessment of the way the border crisis has been handled in your state? What are some ways in which lawmakers can do those two things that you mention?
MV: First and foremost, what we need on this issue is we need leadership, and with my opponent, she would rather run on the issue, as opposed to actually creating opportunities for solutions to reach us here at the border. Texas 15 is a border district, so these are not just political issues or talking points, they're our reality, and we need someone who will talk about it and bring information to DC about what it is to live here. My small business, for example, is a flea market where we serve hundreds, if not thousands of people every single week. We're just about eight miles north of our closest international bridge, and we know very well the challenges that we face when there isn't orderliness at the border for immigration, for tourism, for trade, that directly impacts us immediately at the economic level, but also at a very personal level. And what we need is someone who understands that, who will speak about the solutions that we need to see, and we really desperately need resources that reach us, that will increase capacity in our immigration court, so that the backlog of folks who are kind of caught up in the system and living invisibly in our communities have a legal, timely, humane pathway to citizenship. But we also know we need increased capacity for our border patrol and improved technology for our ports of entry so that people looking to cause harm, or people who are looking to human traffic or to traffic drugs into our communities like fentanyl, are stopped because we don't want that in our community either.
LT: Gov. Greg Abbott has been vocal about his anti-immigration stances. Can you talk a little bit more about Operation Lone Star? How have you seen your potential constituents impacted by this or immigration in general? Do you agree with the way Biden and Harris have handled this issue?
MV: I think at the federal level, there needs to be more done. There needs to be more decisive leadership on what we need on the ground. And when it comes to our governor here in Texas, his actions, I believe that they are very much fueled by political agenda. And so we're left having to carry the burden of the expenses of what it takes to make sure that we have a secure border, we are processing immigrants in a humane way, we're vetting people who are looking to come into this country, and also we're able to have viable, healthy, functional ports of entry, because trade with Mexico, our largest trade partner, is something that is so important to our local economies, and so whenever that gets interrupted, it directly impacts our communities, our families The very next day, if not that very same day. And so overall, I see that there has been a lack of action or lack of leadership, and we very much need more voices from our border communities and from Texas district 15 that will set aside the political game and actually come to the table and come with the solutions that we desperately need.
LT: Looking ahead, it is no secret that Texas has become even more of a Republican stronghold over the past cycles. Being in the minority party in your state, how do you think you'd be able to get things done if you're elected?
MV: I always look to my experience as a small business owner, as somebody who has worked with hundreds of other small businesses. You know, we don't ask whether you are red or blue. We just know that we are there to work hard, get things done and be able to bring back home what we need for our families to be able to survive and to thrive. And that's exactly how I see this job in Congress, and as the hopeful next Congresswoman for Texas 15, I'm looking to work with anybody and everybody who's serious about getting things done for our districts, for the people and families that we represent, and that's how I look to forge relationships that are productive and that will actually deliver results. I'm not looking to be someone who is chasing a headline, but I'm somebody who looks to actually get things done for my family, for our families, and for the South Texas region that very much has my heart, and I know very well is in desperate need for support and for resources and investment. And so I'm really excited and very, very laser focused on winning this race and being able to get that done for my community.
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