Bobby Pulido takes the stage Saturday with gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa and U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico. Credit: Michael Karlis

Tejano singer-turned-South Texas U.S. congressional candidate Bobby Pulido is trying to walk a fine line.

Indeed, during his concert and political rally Saturday night in the South Texas town of Beeville, the Democratic candidate was careful to distance himself from the larger party, and the response from the crowd suggests his approach just might send him to the U.S. House this fall.

Pulido came out to thunderous applause at Beeville’s Grande Dance Hall. Some 2,750 people turned out in the town of fewer than 14,000 to see the two-time Latin Grammy winner — no small feat considering Donald Trump won 70% of the Bee County vote in 2024.

But Pulido is a different kind of Democrat, and he doesn’t shy from making that clear.

“I don’t care about the party that you voted for before,” Pulido said as he took the stage. “Whatever happened before, that’s the past. I’m not here to be loyal to a party. I’m here to fight for you. And let me tell you, I am a Blue Dog Democrat. A Blue Dog Democrat is a conservative Democrat. I’m a Mexican redneck — I like to hunt and fish. But when things are broken, we have to get them fixed.”

Indeed, Pulido appears to have struck a chord in Texas’ 15th Congressional District, which was redrawn last summer by Texas’ GOP-controlled legislature.

The state’s Republican leadership engineered the controversial mid-decade redistricting to make the district more red — in part to help ensure Republican U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz’s reelection. However, Pulido and his campaign believe they may have had the opposite effect.

“They actually drew my district as a Tejano district,” Pulido said.

Beeville itself is 70% Latino, and other rural towns in the redrawn district are also majority Latino. Although Trump carried many counties in South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley in 2024, Pulido is betting big that Tejanos have changed their minds about the GOP, specifically due to Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown.

“I don’t know if it happens in Beeville as much as the Rio Grande Valley, but we got a lot of people living in fear,” Pulido said. “There’s a lot of families being torn apart. Good people that’ve been in that community for 25 or 30 years. [White House officials] said they were going to get rid of the bad people. They lied. They said there were no more new wars. They lied. They said the economy was going to get better, then put tariffs on everything and made it more expensive. Are we tired of getting lied to?”

The crowd responded with a resounding “Yes!” Some called out, “They’re liars!”

It’s not just a populist approach that makes the singer-turned-candidate stand out, though.

Saturday’s event, which also featured performances by Tejano singers including Lucky Joe, Roberto “El Primo” Pulido and Vanita Leo, was as much a concert as it was a political rally in a county where a big night out might include a movie and a stop at the local Dairy Queen.

Pulido’s set, which went on for about a half hour, included the hits like his song “Desvelado,” as fans in cowboy hats and boots twirled on the dance floor. His band threw campaign merchandise into the crowd, including T-shirts that read “Make Quinceañeras Great Again.”

As evidence Pulido’s campaign may be winning over voters, he’s leading De La Cruz by two percentage points, according to a poll conducted late last month by left-leaning Washington D.C.-based consulting firm Normington Petts.

Saturday’s concert and rally also showed the singer’s appeal may extend beyond Democrats and independents.

Before Pulido spoke, U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa also addressed the crowd. Hinojosa, who grew up in Brownsville, received a warm welcome. Talarico was heckled on a few occasions.

“I don’t know about the other two, but Bobby’s got my vote,” one Anglo concertgoer from Karnes County said. “He’s one of us.”

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...