WASHINGTON — South Texas Democratic congressional candidate Bobby Pulido carried out with a bandmate who’s a registered intercourse offender convicted of indecent contact with an 8 yr outdated woman, drawing renewed scrutiny from his Republican opponent.
Pulido is difficult Rep. Monica De La Cruz in Texas’ fifteenth Congressional District, a majority-Hispanic district which runs from McAllen to rural counties east of San Antonio and voted for President Donald Trump by 18 share factors. He’s a well known Tejano singer who first rose to fame within the Nineties and whose candidacy has excited Democrats in South Texas and Washington alike.
Pulido’s affiliation with accordion participant Frankie Caballero was first reported by the New York Submit.
Caballero has performed accordion onstage with Pulido quite a few instances, in line with the New York Submit report — together with after his 2014 conviction.
In a press release, Pulido’s marketing campaign supervisor mentioned the singer was not conscious of Caballero’s felony historical past.
“Bobby extends his deepest sympathies and help to all the victims concerned,” Pulido marketing campaign supervisor Abel Prado mentioned in a press release. “Frankie Caballero has lengthy struggled with habit points and Bobby Pulido has acknowledged and tried to assist him with that battle.”
Prado mentioned when Pulido’s administration realized of Caballero’s felony historical past in 2021, he was instantly fired and that relationship was severed.
“Bobby was by no means made conscious of Caballero’s intercourse offender registration and would by no means knowingly affiliate with anybody with that form of historical past,” he mentioned.
Prado additionally mentioned that the hiring of Caballero was accomplished by Pulido’s administration firm, which didn’t conduct a background verify, in accordance with trade requirements.
Republicans, together with De La Cruz, have jumped on the report saying that is simply the newest piece of proof that Pulido is morally corrupt.
“My coronary heart goes out to the youngsters who have been sexually abused by a detailed buddy {and professional} affiliate of Bobby Pulido,” De La Cruz mentioned in a press release. “Regardless of being caught on tape admitting he knew of this man’s criminality and praising him as not too long ago as November, Mr. Pulido now falsely claims to have been unaware of his crimes. These should not South Texas values.”
Pulido mentioned in a November interview with the Houston Chronicle about his music that Caballero, who performed on the recording of his 1995 hit “Desvelado,” was a “prolific accordion participant” who ended up on the track after the keyboard participant who was alleged to be on the monitor missed the session.
Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee, known as Pulido “misogynistic.”
“Bobby Pulido’s sample is obvious: dangerous judgment, worse excuses, and 0 accountability,” Martinez mentioned. “Texans deserve somebody who could be trusted to guard their households, not somebody who spent years sharing the stage with a band of pedophiles and now needs Texans to imagine he had no thought.”
Pulido has leaned into his music fame and standing as a political outsider on the marketing campaign path, together with to resist assaults associated to his musical profession. Republicans have jumped on his previous social media posts — which embody sexist feedback and hyperlinks to pornographic web sites — in addition to a music video wherein he portrays a pervert, as proof that the Democratic candidate is wicked.
The singer, for his half, has mentioned that the music video is a parody satirizing Latin artist Elvis Crespo. And in a video posted to X on March 22, he known as Republican assaults “low cost” and mentioned that a lot of his Spanish language humor doesn’t translate to English, which “exhibits simply how out of contact they’re with our tradition.”
“I’ve been within the music enterprise for 30 years and by no means had a scandal — and I’m pleased with that,” Pulido mentioned. “For sure, they’re very nervous about dropping this seat.”
Redistricting modified the boundaries of the fifteenth Congressional District, however it retained related partisanship. De La Cruz received the seat by 14% in 2024, however Democrats are bullish about Pulido’s skill to convey Hispanic voters again into the Democratic column. A ballot performed by a Democratic group of the race final fall discovered Pulido trailing De La Cruz by 3%.
This text first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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