WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is heading to Texas to campaign with Johnny Garcia, who is running in a redistricted San Antonio-area congressoinal seat that Democrats believe they can win, according to a person familiar with the campaign.
Jeffries, who is poised to become speaker if Democrats win the House, was an early organizer of Democrats’ pushback to the Republican effort to redraw the state’s congressional map last year. He met with legislative Democrats in Austin last summer and helped coordinate Democratic retaliatory redraws in California and other states.
Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, is running in one of the five districts that Republicans redrew with the intention of flipping. Under the current boundaries, President Donald Trump would have won the seat by 10 percentage points in 2024.
The 35th District, anchored in San Antonio, is narrowly majority-Hispanic in its eligible voting population, and extends from the southern and northeastern portions of Bexar County to neighboring, highly conservative counties east and south of San Antonio. A victory in the district would portend a strong night for Democrats, particularly in seats with significant Latino populations.
Jeffries is planning to visit churches with Garcia on Oct. 25 in the district.
Throughout the cycle, Jeffries has maintained that Republicans overplayed their hand in drawing new maps, and that their intended five-seat pickup in Texas will not come to pass.
On a press call in early October, Jeffries praised Garcia — as well as Bobby Pulido, the Democratic challenger to Rep. Monica De La Cruz in the 15th Congressional District — as “incredible candidates.”
“They’re doing a tremendous job, and they’ve run strong races, positioning them to be successful on November 3rd and to break the back of the Republican dummymander in Texas,” Jeffries said. “Bobby Pulido and Johnny Garcia, as a result of their own life experiences, the time that they’ve spent growing up in the Rio Grande Valley and in South Texas, the ability to connect with working class voters as well as, of course, Hispanic voters, has proven to be tremendous. And as a result, Republicans are running scared in those two districts.”
Garcia faces Republican Carlos De La Cruz, an Air Force veteran and the brother of U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, R-Edinburg.
Of the five seats that legislative Republicans redrew with the intention of flipping in 2025, the 35th District is the third-likeliest to stay in Democratic hands, according to election analysts, making the outcome of the race the pivot point for the success of the redistricting scheme.
House Speaker Mike Johnson made his own swing through Texas last week, visiting Corpus Christi and McAllen to boost Republican candidates in competitive races, including Garcia’s opponent De La Cruz, where he emphasized the importance of the competitive House contests in the region.
“I’m not exaggerating, South Texas will literally decide the majority in the Congress,” Johnson said.
The Alamo City will receive a significant political spotlight in the U.S. Senate contest between Republican Ken Paxton and Democrat James Talarico as well in the closing days of the campaign. Talarico is set to swing through San Antonio on Oct. 24 and again on Nov. 1 as part of his “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts” closing tour.
Paxton, meanwhile, campaigned with Brandon Herrera, the Republican candidate for the 23rd Congressional District, on Sunday as part of his “Come and Take It” bus tour. He will return on Nov. 2 — the final day before the election — for a rally at the Alamo.
