Meet Jessica Cisneros, the 28-year-old immigration lawyer who forced a veteran Democrat into a Texas runoff

Cisneros, a first-generation Mexican American attorney, like Cuellar, once interned for Cuellar

Cisneros, a first-generation Mexican American attorney, like Cuellar, once interned for Cuellar (Getty Images)

A millennial with big political ambitions forced a veteran Democratic congressman into a runoff in Texas’s 28th Congressional District as a close race unfolded in Rep. Henry Cuellar’s deep-south Texas seat stretching from San Antonio to the border.

Jessica Cisneros, a 28-year-old immigration lawyer from Laredo, will square off with Cuellar, a 17-year House veteran and conservative Democrat, on May 24 after holding him under 50 per cent of the vote on Tuesday night in Texas’s primary contests, the first of the midterm elections cycle. Two years ago, she nearly won the nomination.

Cisneros, a first-generation Mexican American attorney, like Cuellar, once interned for Cuellar. She said repeatedly during the campaign that the veteran lawmaker, who opposes abortion rights and is a critic of some of President Joe Biden’s immigration policies, was out of touch with the district.

The closely watched race underscored the divide in the Democratic Party and was a fresh test of whether left-leaning candidates, who have struggled in recent elections, can prevail over more moderate Democrats.

This was not Cisneros’s first bid against Cuellar. After interning for him in 2014, she waged a primary challenge six years later and came within 2,700 votes of defeating him. Cuellar was able to prevail then thanks to decades of name recognition and a deep campaign account - he outspent her by $700,000.

This time around, Cisneros went into the race confident that years spent strengthening her relationship with the community, a stronger grass-roots campaign and a district redrawn to include more portions of liberal San Antonio would be enough to push her to victory.

Whether that’s true is still unclear.

Cisneros’s agenda includes support for abortion rights, Medicare-for-all and a more immigrant-friendly revamp of the nation’s system, but she has said her embrace is more than backing progressive liberal ideals.

“When I talk about Medicare-for-all and why support that policy, I always talk about how when I was 13 years old, I had to help my family fundraise by selling plates of food to raise money. . . . No 13-year-old or no family should have to do that,” Cisneros said. “It’s much easier for people to be able to grasp the concepts and policies that we’re running on if we do it that way, instead of trying to pigeonhole ourselves into one label or the other.”

Her parents had immigrated to the United States when her older sister needed urgent medical care. Cisneros’s father picked fruit and started his own trucking company. Cisneros graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and got her law degree from the University of Texas, where she focused on immigration law.

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, center, joins a rally for Democratic Congressional candidates Jessica Cisneros, left, and Greg Casar on February 12 (AP)

Cisneros has the backing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. She received the support of Planned Parenthood, Emily’s List, the Latino Victory Fund and labor unions, including the Texas AFL-CIO. She backs policies that often stand at the opposite end of the Democratic spectrum from Cuellar’s, who is considered one of the most conservative members of Congress.

Cuellar ran on the promise that he will strike bipartisan deals in the House, telling voters in a recent campaign ad that he wants to “build relationships with both parties.”

Cuellar had criticized Cisneros by arguing that she supports two key issues pushed by liberal Democrats that he claims could have a negative impact on the district - a move toward more clean energy and less funding for the U.S. Border Patrol.

“Cisneros is against oil and gas and I’m not going to vote to get rid of 40,000 jobs that are good-paying jobs here,” Cuellar said in an interview with The Washington Post.

While Cisneros has voiced support for the Green New Deal and the renewable energy industry, she pledged to be “a voice for workers in the fossil fuel industry to ensure no one gets left behind.”

On the border, Cuellar said he wanted to make sure “that we don’t have open borders or defund the police or attack Border Patrol.”

“Those are good-paying jobs,” he said. “My opponent has said that my district is too dependent on Homeland Security jobs - that we totally disagree on.”

Cisneros highlighted her background as an immigration lawyer to draw a contrast with Cuellar, who has become one of his party’s most outspoken critics of the Biden administration’s immigration policies. While he assailed many of former president Donald Trump’s immigration policies - he opposed the construction of a border wall - Cuellar has described the Biden administration as being too welcoming to immigrants.

He has also accused Biden of listening too much to “immigration activists” and not enough to those living on the border, including landowners and law enforcement officials.

Cisneros, meanwhile, constantly invoked her work defending immigrants from deportation during the Trump administration as evidence that her views on immigration are the opposite of Cuellar’s - and more attuned to her voters in her district, which is predominantly rural and Latino.

She supports the scrapping of a 1996 law passed during the Clinton administration that laid the groundwork for the country’s massive deportation system that still exists.

“It was so heartbreaking and painful,” she said during a campaign event, of her work on deportation cases. “But I was representing so many people that reminded me of myself, of my family, and that the only difference between them and me was the fact that I was born in this country, that I just so happened to be born five minutes north of the river.”

The race in the 28th District came on the heels of an FBI raid into Cuellar’s home and campaign headquarters on Jan. 19. The congressman maintained his innocence and vowed to remain in the race but has not specified why he’s under investigation.