PHARR, Texas — As they lined up for selfies and cheered in excitement, the high school football fans on the bleachers welcomed Bobby Pulido like a celebrity.
That’s because, here in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, he’s not all that far from being one.
A Democrat seeking a battleground House seat, Pulido made his name on the radio in the 1990s, crooning Tejano music hits like his father had done before him.
Now seeking to unseat Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R) and help Democrats win back Congress, the two-time Latin Grammy winner has leveraged that regional fame as he barnstorms the district — often singing his hits or playing with other well-known groups like Fuerza Regida.
But Pulido’s unusual profile for a candidate has also given Republicans fodder for attacks. De La Cruz, a two-term congresswoman and insurance agent, has called attention to off-color posts on social media and tried to tie him to a sex offender who played in his band.
She’s also said the job of serving in Congress is “no song and dance,” pushing voters to question how seriously they can take a singer on their ballot.
In the age where a reality TV host is president, a reality TV star is one of his cabinet secretaries, and a sports talk host is seen as a legitimate candidate to take over the White House, Pulido’s race in South Texas has offered a curious case study in the politics of fame.
After De La Cruz said earlier this year that Pulido should “stick to quinceañeras,” he turned it into a campaign staple. He now performs at as many as a half-dozen such birthday celebrations in the district each weekend.
Pulido may not have the national name recognition of Trump or even Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. But Democrats desperate for relatable candidates are looking to Pulido as they try to recapture lost voters, especially in a heavily Latino district where many say relationships are just as important as political party.
At the football game, Bonnie Vasquez, 37, said she voted for De La Cruz four years ago but was now so upset with Republicans that she refused to even say the congresswoman’s name.
Pulido, whose music reminded her of hunting trips with her family, seemed more authentic, she said.
“He’s here from the 956. She’s not a cuh,” she said, using the local area code and regional slang for a close friend. “The celebrity part’s done. That’s not him anymore.”
‘Make Quinceañeras Great Again’
Pulido, 53, grew up in a well-off and well-connected family in Edinburg that voters in the district remembered for their influence in entertainment: His maternal grandfather played with the trailblazing norteño group Los Donneños. His uncle was a county judge. And his father Roberto Pulido, known as “El Primo,” became an icon of Tejano music, which blends traditional Mexican genres with blues, jazz and rock.
The younger Pulido started studying political science at St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, intending to pursue a career in government, but dropped out after he recorded a hit song with his father and landed a recording contract. By 2000, the Tejano Music Awards had named him “Male Entertainer of the Year” three consecutive times.
Yet he decided to pivot to politics, he said, because of frustration with the rising cost of living in South Texas.
Voters in the state’s 15th Congressional District, a thin strip stretching north from the U.S.-Mexico border toward San Antonio, had in recent years strayed from its Democratic roots to back Trump and De La Cruz, the first Republican to ever hold that seat.
Yet Pulido said he could win back the Mexican American voters now turning away from Trump. Under new, gerrymandered Texas maps meant to help Republicans secure their House majority, more than half of the 15th District was new turf.
Thanks to his music career, Pulido said he is better-known in the district than she is, even as an incumbent. “It’s a foot in the door,” he added. “Because of the success I had in music, that piques curiosity.”
Weeks after Pulido had won the Democratic primary, De La Cruz began to mock his background. In March, she said in a video on social media that the race “isn’t about who you want performing at your niece’s quinceañera.”
He turned that jab into a campaign strategy. On social media, he offered to perform free at any of these birthday celebrations, a milestone for Mexican American girls turning 15.
Within 24 hours, Pulido’s campaign had received nearly 1,000 invitations. His two-song set at quinceãneras around the district — and the “Make Quinceañeras Great Again” hat he gives out to the birthday girl — is now as much a staple of his campaign as traditional political rallies.
The student council at PSJA Memorial Early College High School, whose Friday night football game Pulido was attending, also invited him to its end-of-year dance. The students all got up to dance when he appeared.
“For them, Bobby Pulido is not as much a candidate as a household name,” said Jorge Aaron Lozano, a 44-year-old teacher at the school. “It’s the same music we were listening to.”
‘Corrupt liberal celebrity’
At the Republican midterm convention in Dallas earlier this month, De La Cruz took the stage to thunderous applause and again attacked her opponent as “a corrupt liberal celebrity.”
Her seven-minute speech focused heavily on Pulido’s longtime accordion player, Frankie Caballero, who was put in prison for indecent contact with an eight-year-old girl.
“He knowingly spent years bringing a convicted child sex predator around our families,” the congresswoman said. “Not only did my opponent bail this predator out of jail, he took this man to a middle school in our community.”
Pulido has not denied bailing Caballero out of jail but said he only learned about the accordionist’s sex charges after a New York Post report this spring.
He has also acknowledged performing with Caballero at a middle school benefit concert in 2018 and said he would not have allowed the accordionist to join him knowing more about the charges.
He and his campaign have alternately said Pulido thought Caballero was jailed for addiction issues or violating parole and “transferring illegal aliens.” The singer cut ties with Caballero after a domestic abuse charge five years ago.
De La Cruz has also called attention to some of Pulido’s posts on social media, including one in which he photographed himself peeing on Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Pulido cast those attacks as distractions. Even in the more salacious world of entertainment, “I never had a scandal, he said an interview.
Different crowds
At a rally in a park in nearby Edinburg the following morning, volunteers in red-and-white shirts emblazoned with De La Cruz’s name awaited her in blistering hot weather.
In an interview, De La Cruz said Pulido has “a nice singing voice” but questioned whether his resume allowed him to represent the region in Congress. “This is a serious position for a serious leader,” she said, “and I have shown that I have a record of real results.”
She pointed to her efforts to help military veterans find housing, boost clean-water infrastructure in South Texas, and pass bipartisan legislation to fight fentanyl.
After addressing the group of about two dozen volunteers, she expressed confidence that her campaign would reach voters across the 15th District.
Wearing a belt buckle displaying the number “15″ inside the shape of Texas, she said: “You can see from today’s turnout that people are motivated.”
Later that night, Pulido performed for hundreds more people as he crisscrossed the Rio Grande Valley with what was once his tour van, now with new film wrapping that read “Bobby Pulido for Congress.”
The effort, run by his former music manager, is now down to a nightly routine: Two young volunteers hand out pamphlets listing his priorities, including expanded desalination and irrigation efforts, “smart and secure borders,” and lower prescription drug prices.
Another volunteer goes through the crowd with a clipboard, collecting emails and phone numbers they can later reach with campaign blasts. And then Pulido comes out in a custom-made cowboy hat, serenading the crowd.
At the final celebration that Saturday, Irene Cantú, 58, sat up in her chair when Pulido walked in the room, bringing the birthday girl in a floor-length, green and gold dress to tears.
Nursing a beer at a table in the corner of the event hall, Cantú said she has long voted Republican. But “I’m voting for Bobby. Monica, she just doesn’t grab my interest.”
Pulido’s hit single, “Desvelado,” gave her fond memories of an ex, she said.
Then Pulido began singing his next song, and Cantú sat back in her chair, mouthing the words.
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