The Rio Grande Valley, the border region comprising Texas’ southern tip that some 1.4 million residents call home, is known for a certain brand of politics. Essentially a one-party territory, Valley Democrats typically coast on low voter turnout through November elections. The winners are often “South Texas Democrats”—which is to say, conservatives on issues ranging from guns to fossil fuels to abortion. Though not unique to the border, the area regularly hosts family dynasties and public corruption. Now, this political status quo appears in flux; with surprise retirements, redrawn political maps, and insurgents from both right and left, Valley politics look rife with possibility.
“It’s exciting times; it’s like a crossroads,” said Danny Diaz, organizing director at LUPE Votes, an organization cultivating candidates in the Valley to run on a Bernie Sanders-esque platform. “We’re trying to break through that mold of traditional establishment Democrats down here.”
Diaz’s organization is targeting a McAllen-based congressional seat, which is being vacated by Democratic incumbent Vicente Gonzalez after Republicans redrew the district to be more conservative. Gonzalez is now running in a neighboring U.S House district to succeed five-term incumbent Filemon Vela, who’s retiring. In Brownsville, the Lucios—a long-serving father-son duo—are stepping down too, freeing up a state Senate and state House seat. Upriver, Congressman Henry Cuellar, who represents a western chunk of the Valley, is facing a tough primary and an apparent FBI investigation, and 10-term state House member Ryan Guillen switched parties from Democrat to Republican in November.
