Vulnerable Democrat Henry Cuellar: First Vote in Congress Is for Pelosi, then My District

Vulnerable Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar (TX), who barely won his primary election after it went into a runoff and had the support of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), told reporters that his first vote in the new Congress would be for Pelosi, then he would vote for his constituents if reelected.

Cuellar, who went into a runoff battle earlier this year to fend off a socialist insurgent in the district, had the support of the House Speaker and Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) — who even reportedly ran recorded robocalls for the Democrat right before the race.

Following the help from Democrat leadership to make it through his tough primary, the congressman revealed that his first order of business at the start of the next Congress in 2023 would be to vote for Pelosi to remain Speaker of the House before he would focus on doing work for his district.

According to the Texas Tribune, Cuellar confirmed he would vote for Pelosi to remain in the position at the beginning of the new Congress during the opening of a new campaign office in Texas. “My first vote is for Nancy Pelosi — no ifs, no but — but then after that, it’s my district,” Cuellar said.

Cuellar voted with Pelosi 94 percent of the time in the current Congress and is running for reelection in Texas’s Twenty-eighth Congressional District against Republican nominee Cassy Garcia.

Additionally, as Breitbart News has chronicled over the last two years, Republicans are looking to net a minimum of five seats in the midterm election in the party’s attempt to unseat Pelosi from her Speakership and regain the majority in the House.

National Republicans are hoping to take Cuellar’s seat, along with other Democrat-held seats in the Rio Grande Valley border sector of Texas.

In fact, Republicans already had a victory earlier this year when now-Rep. Mayra Flores (R) won the special election to fill the open seat in Texas’s Thirty-fourth Congressional District. But she will now be facing Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX) within newly drawn congressional lines.

In 2018, the Democrats took the House from the Republicans. In 2020, after striving to win back the House, the Republicans left the Democrats with the slimmest majority in modern history and gave themselves the upper hand in the midterms.

For Republicans, winning the majority will require a net gain of only five seats in November, and much is on the line in both the House and the Senate. Republicans winning either one could mean the Democrats and Biden will have more difficulty passing their agenda items before the next presidential election.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.