Jessica Cisneros, Ruben Ramirez demand recounts in two close-call South Texas runoff races

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Texas Tribune

Progressive candidate Jessica Cisneros announced Monday she will request a recount in the hard-fought Democratic primary runoff against U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, after she finished 281 votes behind him. Another Democrat in a key South Texas congressional race, Ruben Ramirez, also said Monday he will ask for a recount. He finished 30 votes behind Michelle Vallejo for the open seat in the 15th District.

The recount announcements came shortly after the Texas Democratic Party certified its primary runoff results, confirming the margins for Cuellar and Vallejo that counties finalized last week.“Our community isn’t done fighting, we are filing for a recount,” Cisneros said in a statement. “With just under 0.6 percent of the vote symbolizing such stark differences for the future in South Texas, I owe it to our community to see this through to the end.”

Cuellar has already declared victory twice. He first did on election night, which he emerged from with a 177-vote lead. And then he did it again after counties finished canvassing their results last week, giving him the 281-vote lead.Vallejo, who emerged from election night with a 23-vote lead, already declared victory last week as counties were tallying their final ballots, padding her margin. The recounts mean it will be at least weeks before an undisputed winner emerges in each runoff.

Any runoff candidate can request a recount as long as their margin is less than 10% of the number of votes received by their opponent. The deadline to request a recount is 5 p.m. Wednesday. The runoff between the moderate Cuellar and progressive Cisneros had been dramatic for months. It was shaken up in the runoff when Politico published a draft opinion of U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade, drawing attention to Cuellar’s status as one of the few remaining Democrats in Congress who oppose abortion.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/06/jessica-cisneros-ruben-ramirez-henry-cuellar-texas-recount/

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Sensible recount requests.

[ancianita]

2. All for it. EVERY Democrat running in Texas should request recounts.

[TexasTowelie]

3. No, not if he taxpayers have to bear that expense.

Recounts are for close races, not for the purpose of being a nuisance or wasting money.

[ancianita]

5. Seriously. You're sympathetic to TX taxpayers? But not to Democratic taxpayers who voted for the Dem

who's down 30 votes and the other Dem who's down by 281, or .6%.? You think Cisneros and Ramirez are being nuisances, and wasting taxpayer money?

You want that pro-gun, anti-abortion Democrat, Cuellar, in office? Really.

This is not some abstract debate on recounts here.

[TexasTowelie]

7. You said "EVERY" race deserves a recount.

I agree that both of the races mentioned in the article qualify for recounts. However, I don't want elections where the margin isn't close to be recounted because that is a waste of resources. Does that clarify my earlier comment?

As far as Cuellar is concerned, the voters in that district have let us know three different times that they prefer Cuellar over Cisneros: the 2020 primary, the 2022 primary, and the 2022 primary runoff. Perhaps there are other issues besides guns and abortion rights that are important to the voters in that district which is why Cuellar is a nine-term Congressman? It seems arrogant for anyone outside that district to question the decisions that the voters made (repeatedly).

And yes, I am sympathetic to Texas taxpayers because I am one.

[ancianita]

8. You said TEXAS.

You're equally as sympathetic to Republican Texas taxpayers as Democratic taxpayers. Okay.

I don't care if Texas Dems wanted a pro-gun/anti-abortion candidate 90 times in the past, those issues are in the national spotlight, and she's on deck. She is entitled to be recounted based on the stance of the national party leadership.

I hear you about the arrogance. We in red states get that all the time.

[TexasTowelie]

9. Cisneros is entitled to a recount because she came within the vote margin specified under Texas law.

Cisneros is not entitled to a recount based upon the stance of the national party leadership. If Cisneros went into court demanding a recount based upon the fact that national party leadership helped her opponent, then I suspect the judge would laugh, dismiss the case, then contact the Texas Bar Association to see whether her law license should be revoked.

[ancianita]

10. I already knew that. I already meant that EVERY Democrat should have a recount under TX law.

If Cisneros went to court... ? Yeah, that's a reach. As it is now, national party leadership too soon endorsed Cuellar, anyway.

[TexasTowelie]

11. Was that endorsement from a "national party leadership" group

or were those endorsements for Cuellar made by individual Congressmen? If the latter is true, then I don't see how Pelosi or Jeffries endorsing Cuellar is any different from Bernie, AOC, or Warren endorsing Cisneros.

Individual congressman do develop relationships with their colleagues and work to maintain those relationships even when the colleague is a member of the opposing party. The Congressional leadership endorsed Cuellar because he is a known quantity and while he disagrees on some issues, he has also been a reliable vote. Cisneros is an unknown quantity who aligns with Justice Democrats who at times opposes the remainder of the Democratic party. I understand why congressional Democrats would prefer reliability over inexperience.

[ancianita]

12. Pelosi and Jeffries are leadership. But if you want to throw in Bernie, AOC & Warren, fine on

a leadership definition. I remember the party division when it came to Texas.

This whole issue of who should or shouldn't get recounts under Texas law is moot.

It's the attitude that we cave that gets to me. That attitude is what my EVERY line is really about, and I think you understood the spirit of that, but just wanted to quibble for points.

In 2022. Given the national stakes, while there's time for quibbling about who's the "better" candidate in primaries, there has to be no more time for quibbling by September. There really should be a unifying of this party about what we stand for. We're either a party trying to get our best pro-Roe and anti-gun candidates in, or we just quibble and collapse on winning no matter who all call themselves Democratic.

Cuellar is NOT a reliable vote.
He's called the Manchin of the House.
He was the LONE NO on the Women's Health Protection bill.
He is the ONLY Dem with an A rating in a party of F's, and after the last mass shootings refuses to return his NRA check. I'll be shocked if Pelosi can count him on the upcoming gun control bill.

Given the national stakes, reliable representation doesn't take longevity; it takes trust in preserving the life and liberty of women and children nationwide, not just those in one's district. That's where district politics falls, in not seeing its own interests in the nation's interests. We'll never turn red states blue with this attitude of caving. It cuts into votes for the O'Rourkes and Abrams who are uphill battling.

[TexasTowelie]

13. Apparently the House leadership does consider Cuellar to be a reliable vote; otherwise, they would

not have endorsed him.

As far as Cuellar being the lone no vote on the Women's Health Protection bill, he apparently had his reasons to vote no--similar to certain members of the Squad who voted no on the infrastructure bill in the fall because of the principles they held. Cuellar's no vote didn't keep the bill from dying in the Senate, just as the no votes from the members of the Squad didn't kill the infrastructure bill in the Senate.

The facts are that the Justice Democrats targeted the TX-28 district in 2020 was because they thought it would be an easy pickup. The group also considered endorsing Democrats in the TX-15 and TX-34 districts in South Texas that year, but backtracked after they realize those districts were unwinnable even though those districts had Democratic incumbents who frequently aligned with Cuellar.

However, Justice Democrats failed to do their homework and realize that the TX-28 district always leaned conservative rather progressive--none of the universities in that region of the state are considered as liberal bastions so that makes it difficult for cultural attitudes to change. The last time that the progressives tried to organize in South Texas was with La Raza Unida in the 1970s and that movement also failed. The $10 million that Justice Democrats spent trying to pick up this one congressional seat from a Democrat could have been more wisely spent choosing a candidate and knocking off a Republican in a different race instead.

Apparently the voters in that district know something that we don't know as media observers about the candidates. The stars seemed to align with Jessica with the news of the FBI raid on Cuellar's home and the leak of the SCOTUS decision on abortion rights. Yet with all of these developments that should have favored her campaign she still didn't win.

BTW, I think the NRA lowered Cuellar's rating in 2019 after he voted for legislation the group opposed. Some other members posted information that Cuellar now rates as a "C."

[Demsrule86]

17. My politics are with Cisnero but Cuellar has the best chance to win the seat.

[TiberiusB]

18. I think you're reading this completely backward

Cuellar benefited massively from millions in super pac funding and support from Pelosi and Clyburn and still has only managed to claw out a win on the thinnest of margins. It's hard to see that as a Cisneros failure rather than incredibly narrow victory for a badly compromised corporate democrat.

Attacking progressives is how the DLC and DCCC roll. They are incredibly blatant in their disdain for them.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/30/democrats-progressives-leadership-texas-primary

https://www.salon.com/2022/05/17/aipac-super-pac-funnels-millions-in-dark-money-to-progressive-candidates-in-democratic-races_partner/

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/democratic-primaries-progressives-incumbents-hakeem-jeffries-1301186/

[TexasTowelie]

20. Cisneros received the backing of Justice Democrats which has its own super PAC.

I mention that because both candidates received money from groups outside the 28th congressional district. This wasn't a home=-grown movement by Jessica.

[TiberiusB]

21. True, but...

...there is no way Justice Democrats matched the funding Cuellar got. A fairly modest PAC funded by public donations can't dance with one financed by corporate and DCCC cash, so it wasn't a a home grown movement by Cuellar, either.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/dscc-dccc-democrats-abortion/

[Jose Garcia]

4. Why would a Democrat who won request a recount?

[ancianita]

6. Which one was that?

[Jose Garcia]

14. Beto O'Rourke, Mike Collier, Rochelle Garza, Janet Dudding, Jay Kleberg, and Susan Hays for starters

[ancianita]

15. Seriously? You couldn't logically assume I didn't mean the winners? Okay.

Man, show some spirit and ya get beat down with the technical quibbling ...

You win. TX law on recounts makes my point moot. But the spirit of support remains. And Cuellar needs to worry.

[Jose Garcia]

16. Would it be reasonable for Joy Diaz to demand a recount (and TX taxpayers to pay for it)?

[ancianita]

19. Sure, if her loss is within recount range, and because TX Democratic taxpayers would want one.