WASHINGTON – Challenger Jessica Cisneros, lagging by a mere 281 votes, said Monday she’ll file for a recount in her congressional primary runoff against nine-term U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar.
The incumbent, a Laredo Democrat, has claimed victory and predicted again on Monday that his lead – still narrow but double where it was a week ago – will withstand further scrutiny.
“My opponent has every legal right to call for a recount though she has previously stated that she won’t stop fighting until every vote has been counted. Well, every vote has been counted,” Cuellar said, “and our margin not only held but increased. ... She has no path to victory and will not gain 281 votes.”
Independent analysts have not called the race, which drew national interest because Cuellar is a rare Democrat who opposes abortion rights and draws high grades from the NRA for supporting gun rights.
“Our community isn’t done fighting,” Cisneros, a 29-year-old immigration lawyer, said in a statement. “We are filing for a recount. With just under 0.6 percent of the vote symbolizing such stark differences for the future in South Texas, I owe it to our community to see this through to the end.”
Cuellar declared victory hours after polls closed on election night May 24, with a lead of 177 votes – close, though not as close as his 58-vote win in the 2004 primary, when he ousted incumbent Ciro Rodriguez.
Last Wednesday, after an update from Bexar County, Cuellar’s lead dwindled to 136 votes
Counties had until Friday to certify results from the May 24 primary runoffs. On Monday, an official Democratic Party canvass showed that Cuellar’s lead had risen to 281 out of more than 45,000.
Two years ago, Cisneros fell short to Cuellar by 4 points.
This time around, progressives irked by Cuellar’s opposition to abortion rights and most forms of gun control pumped millions into the effort to push him out. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez promoted the challenger.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others in House Democratic leadership flocked to Cuellar’s defense, inflaming the left and fueling hard feelings within the party.
Cisneros had been appealing to donors to raise $250,000 for a recount.
“Our movement was never just about one politician,” Cisneros said. “It was about taking on an unjust system that rewards corruption and corporate profits at the expense of the needs of working people.”
The head of the party’s House campaign arm, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, or DCCC, told The Dallas Morning News last Tuesday that “it appears that Congressman Cuellar has won again,” though he acknowledged it wasn’t yet official.
“It’s my expectation that when the dust settles, he will be the Democratic nominee. And we are going to hold that seat,” he said.
