Dressed in his traditional cowboy hat, boots and jeans, Tejano singer Bobby Pulido took the stage and the microphone. Although he sang his best known hit, ‘Desvelado’, the central moment of the night was not musical, but political: a speech to introduce himself as a candidate for Congress and as an alternative for Texans who, he said, “are tired” of traditional politics.
Pulido, a two-time Grammy Award-winning artist with a career spanning nearly three decades, aspires to represent Texas’ 15th district – which encompasses part of the southern border and the outskirts of San Antonio and is 81% Hispanic – in the House of Representatives.
With a “conservative Democrat” image, the singer seeks to reconnect with Latino voters in Texas, who in recent years broke decades of loyalty to the Democratic Party and voted overwhelmingly for the current president, Donald Trump, in the last presidential election.
Although the mid-term elections are still nine months away and Pulido must first get through his party’s internal elections, his campaign is making steady progress. Since the middle of last year he began a tour of public assemblies -which he christened Ranch Hall- in which he meets with citizens in events that combine political proposals, music and elements of Texan cultural identity.
This week, one of those stops was in Gonzales, a town outside of San Antonio, where it drew about 150 people on a Thursday night. After presenting his ideas, Pulido spent about half an hour answering questions from the audience, who questioned him on issues such as abortion, gun violence and the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
For Pulido, the foray into politics is proving “much more difficult” than his musical career. “It demands more,” he acknowledged in an interview with EFE, although he assured that politics was his “first love.”
“I studied political science, then I drifted into music and did pretty well for 30 years; but I’m finally doing something I’ve always wanted to do (…) I want to be a public servant,” said the 52-year-old Texan. The decision to launch his candidacy – officially announced last September, after concluding his farewell tour, “Por la Puerta Grande” – he meditated for “almost a year”.
Although he aspires to represent a region and an electorate that leaned toward the Republican Party-55% of Latinos in Texas voted for Trump in 2025, up from 30% in 2016-Pulido is an outspoken critic of the incumbent.
“The Hispanic community votes for people, not parties (…) that’s why we see it so divided. We need to unite, and that is what I want to do,” he said.
During his speech in Gonzales, the candidate rejected the deployment of immigration agents in different cities of the country, as well as the use of tariffs by the Executive and the military intervention in Venezuela.
Nationally, Latinos show growing dissatisfaction with the current administration’s performance. Seventy percent of Hispanics disapprove of Trump’s handling of the presidency, according to a Pew Research Center poll released in November.
To translate that discontent back into votes for the Democrats, Pulido is betting on a constant presence in the territory. In his view, the mistake of the party – which for more than a century held control of the 15th district – was to take voter support for granted.
“The Rio Grande Valley used to vote 80 percent Democrat, but the party never really supported. They thought people were always going to vote for them, no matter what their needs were,” he contended.
His ideology, he explained, is that of a “South Texas Democrat” – “a Democrat who doesn’t look down on those who go to Mass, own guns or love their country.” “You can love this country and at the same time disagree with what is going on,” he added.
Among those attending the event in Gonzales was Roy Garza, a driver and San Antonio resident, who defined himself as a person “without political allegiances”.
“My candidate is whoever can do what is necessary to move the country forward,” he told EFE. “The United States is very divided and I just hope the politicians do what they say they are going to do,” Agencia EFE reported.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
