Republican Monica De La Cruz narrowly beat her Democratic opponent Michelle Vallejo in the race for the newly drawn 15th Congressional District in Texas, The Associated Press projects, marking a key win for the GOP in a race where border security was a top campaign issue.
The seat was recently redrawn following the 2020 Census, and includes a region of South Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border in the Rio Grande Valley.
The race was seen as the most competitive race in Texas and saw a clash between two competing narratives — Texas turning blue and Hispanics leaning Republican.
Both candidates had embraced their respective bases. De La Cruz had touted the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and ran on issues like border security, pro-life issues and rejecting "woke culture."
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Michelle Vallejo, a progressive democratic candidate for District 15 who was recently endorsed by Elizabeth Warren, poses for a photo at a voting site in McAllen, Texas, U.S. March 1, 2022. (REUTERS/Veronica G. Cardenas)
"South Texas is not woke, but they are awakened," De La Cruz said in an interview with Fox News Digital last month.
Vallejo had picked up the support of top liberal politicians like Sens. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and is a strong supporter of abortion rights and Medicare-for-all.
"Overall people have felt like we need a big change," Vallejo said in an interview with The Washington Post. "What’s at stake here is, is South Texas representing itself for who it is?"
Both candidates are the children of Mexican immigrants, with the race coming as the southern border is engulfed in a border-wide migrant crisis that saw more than 2.3 million migrant encounters last fiscal year.
"The people in South Texas want a secure border. We believe in law and order, and that's where the Democrat Party goes wrong," De La Cruz told Fox News Digital. "They think that Hispanics want an open border and that just simply is not true. The Hispanics here, the people, South Texas want a safe and secure system."
The race, which has a majority-Hispanic electorate, was being watched carefully by political prognosticators to see if a Hispanic turn to Republicans that emerged in the 2020 election was a one-off event or has longer staying power.
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Republican candidate Monica De La Cruz doesn’t believe Democrats and their allies in the mainstream media understand the Hispanic community in South Texas. ( National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC))
Republicans have invested heavily in Hispanic outreach, including Spanish-language ad buys and services to offer citizenship classes and tax advice. They had been boosted earlier in the year when Rep. Mayra Flores, flipped the nearby 34th Congressional District in the summer.
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Democrats, meanwhile, had opened additional field offices and had hoped that moves by Republican governors, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to bus migrants deeper into the U.S. would backfire with Hispanic voters.
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