Democratic and Republican candidates are crossing party lines to win seats in the South Texas House of Representatives

By Ashlyn Beck | News editor

With federal House elections underway, political science professors say Democrats could have a chance to flip the Republican-controlled House in battleground races of 53 voting districts. Three of these battlefields are in South Texas.

In Texas, the battleground races are for three open seats: District 15, District 28 and District 34.

According to Pat Flavin, interim leader and political science professor, Democrats’ best chance of winning a majority is to eliminate the vacant House seats because it is unlikely that a new candidate will win in the race against an incumbent.

“If you’re a Republican waiting for a favorable district, you would wait for an open seat, but it’s also … probably the best chance for Democrats to try to flip the seat,” Flavin said.

Of the 45 currently open districts in the House of Representatives, Democrats need to win at least five to achieve a majority.

“The Republicans currently have a razor-thin majority in the House of Representatives. This is reflected in the difficulty of managing routine votes – such as passing a budget – and therefore it is very likely that the majority will flip after the 2024 election,” Flavin said.

As for Texas, both Republican and Democratic candidates are vying for congressional seats in the three battleground districts of South Texas.

Republican incumbent Monica De La Cruz and Democrat Michelle Vallejo face off again after De La Cruz won 53.3% to 44.8% in 2022. De La Cruz was the first Republican to win the 15th District, but Vallejo returned to the race in hopes of turning the seat Democratic again.

De La Cruz said she receives support from the Hispanic community in the South Texas district.

“Hispanics also reject far-left politics in urban areas like New York and Los Angeles. It is easy for elites to embrace utopian criminal justice experiments from the comfort of gated communities. After all, it’s not their bodegas that are being robbed. Nor do they suffer the consequences of reckless border policies,” De La Cruz said in an opinion column for Newsweek.

As for the Democratic nominee, Vallejo is promising to do whatever it takes to secure the border — even if it crosses party lines, the Texas Tribune reported. Additionally, Vallejo is committed to granting women in Texas the right to abortion.

In District 28, the race gets even more heated as Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar faces opposition from Republican Jay Furman. The race became even more contentious after Cuellar was indicted in May on charges of bribery, money laundering and acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government.

Another South Texas district, borders and immigration are hot topics in the race. According to Cuellar’s campaign website, his goal is to “balance the interests of communities on the U.S.-Mexico border that depend on both international trade and small-town economies.”

U.S. Navy veteran Furman is challenging Cuellar for the seat and said he was shocked when he returned from the Navy to find that “poor policies are causing clear problems and are a threat to the safety, freedom and survival of the United States.” Representing South Texans,” his biography on Ballotpedia reads.

In District 34, Democratic incumbent Vincente Gonzales Jr. faces Republican Maya Flores. With Gonzales’ narrow victory in 2022, both Democrats and Republicans are pushing to keep the seat.

According to his campaign website, Gonzales wants to reinvest in the education system to “keep classrooms open and children learning.”

Flores’ campaign focuses on securing the border, providing affordable health care and, like Gonzales, protecting the education system.

While congressional races are often overlooked in presidential elections, David Bridge, associate professor of political science, said participating in congressional elections is important to the American people.

“All 435 members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election, so it is the easiest way to quickly effect dramatic change in American national politics,” Bridge said.

Senior Grayson Shirey of Papillon, Nebraska, interned in the House of Representatives and said voting in congressional elections is just as important as voting in presidential elections.

“I think lower turnout in congressional elections is one of the scariest things, at least for a young voter,” Shirey said.

Additionally, Flavin said the lack of participation among young voters is one reason the things they care about don’t always get attention in Congress. Because voter turnout is higher among seniors, Congress isn’t making big changes in areas like Social Security and Medicare.

“If it were flipped and younger people voted the same as older people, we would probably see something completely different in Congress,” Flavin said. “I think that’s something students should also think about when they think about why it’s important to vote.”