Jimena Sáenz’s glittery blue quinceañera robe caught the sunshine and sparkled as she swayed to the Tejano music flowing by way of the Edinburg occasion middle final month.
Her family and friends shaped a circle round her, some mouthing lyrics as they filmed on their telephones and danced to the stay efficiency from Bobby Pulido, the Tejano music star who’s working for Congress in South Texas.
It was one among a dozen quinceañeras the Democrat and first-time political candidate has gone to since mid-March, an effort aimed toward spinning a dig from his opponent — who mentioned the election “isn’t about who you need acting at your niece’s quinceañera” — into an offbeat method of reaching new voters.
At Sáenz’s quinceañera, Pulido began the night singing “Hermoso Cariño” by Mexican singer Vicente Fernández and later carried out “Desvelado,” the title observe of his 1995 album that propelled him to fame and reached the highest 10 on Billboard’s chart of prime Latin albums.
It’s additionally a favourite for Jimena Sáenz’s sisters.
“I do know it’s primary, however ‘Desvelado’ is certainly simply a kind of bangers that you simply can’t eliminate this household in any respect,” mentioned Janie Sáenz, Jimena’s 20-year-old sister.
Pulido’s quinceañera circuit was impressed by a March 4 video posted on social media by his Republican opponent, incumbent U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz, during which she referred to Pulido as a “scandal-plagued celeb” and questioned his health for workplace.
“This election isn’t about who you need acting at your niece’s quinceañera,” mentioned De La Cruz, R-Edinburg. “It’s about who you belief with your loved ones’s future. After years of neglect, South Texas lastly has a seat on the desk, and we’re not going to jeopardize that.”
Pulido fired again, saying the celebration — which celebrates a lady’s fifteenth birthday and transition into womanhood — is a ceremony of passage in South Texas that brings the neighborhood collectively.
“Quinceaneras are part of our tradition right here,” he mentioned in an interview. “She tried to make it an insult, and I take it as a badge of honor.”
Pulido put out an open name for invites to carry out at quinceañeras throughout Texas’ fifteenth Congressional District, which stretches from east of San Antonio to the Rio Grande Valley and is Democrats’ prime goal in Texas. His marketing campaign acquired greater than 1,000 requests within the first 24 hours, and within the weeks since, folks have additionally been asking Pulido to carry out at birthday events, bar mitzvahs and graduations, he mentioned, noting that the requests now quantity greater than 2,700.
Amy Sáenz, Jimena Sáenz’s 18-year-old sister who crammed out the shape inviting Pulido, mentioned she heard about his performances from her highschool coaches and classmates and crammed out the shape after encouragement from her mother. She mentioned her household deliberate Pulido’s look as a shock for the roughly 250 visitors they anticipated.
On the quinceañera, Pulido gave Jimena Sáenz a pink hat labeled “Make Quinceañeras Nice Once more” and autographed by the Tejano singer.
“We determined to ask Bobby Pulido to not solely showcase what a quinceañera is, however to even have the reminiscence of him with the ability to come,” mentioned Amy, who’s a senior in highschool. She mentioned her household is politically engaged and already held a optimistic opinion of the singer earlier than his efficiency.
However Álvaro Corral, a political science assistant professor on the College of Texas Rio Grande Valley, mentioned Pulido’s technique isn’t just about interesting to folks attending the quinceañeras, but additionally these seeing the movies and pictures from the occasions which were shared throughout social media — a comparatively low-cost method to attain extra voters.
“It’s a method to attain lots of people … loads of people who might not essentially be tremendous plugged into politics, particularly in a midterm election,” he mentioned, including that it additionally helps Pulido capitalize additional on his optimistic picture as a well-known musician and current himself as a political outsider relatively than a “politician.”
Jackie Bastard, govt director of Jolt Initiative, a Texas-based nonprofit that goals to extend civic participation amongst Latinos, mentioned quinceañeras are a sacred cultural milestone within the Latino neighborhood that symbolize a younger lady getting into management and duty. Pulido’s technique places him in contact with voters the place they’re and introduces him to their communities and the problems they face, she added.
“It’s extra than simply singing,” mentioned Bastard, whose group runs a program that registers folks to vote at quinceañeras. “[When] celebrities and even politicians use that energy to go to folks … they have an inclination to speak to those people quite a bit nearer and and actually inform them the problems which might be impacting them.”
Nationwide Democrats are bullish on Pulido’s probabilities of reclaiming the fifteenth Congressional District, which covers an enormous geographic space however has most of its inhabitants in Hidalgo County, a border neighborhood that features McAllen. De La Cruz has held the seat since she flipped it in 2022, marking the primary time in historical past a Republican gained the district.
Democrats are gunning for the seat this election cycle, hoping to win again Latino voters amid rising dissatisfaction with the Trump administration over the financial system and immigration. The Democratic Congressional Marketing campaign Committee put De La Cruz’s seat — the place about three-quarters of registered voters are Hispanic — on an inventory of 35 Republican-held districts they’re concentrating on throughout the nation as they attempt to win management of the U.S. Home this fall.
However Pulido’s congressional run has additionally attracted criticism as a rising variety of his previous social media posts have resurfaced and been used as fodder by De La Cruz and Republican allies to argue the musician is unfit for Congress. They’ve additionally pointed to reviews that Pulido carried out with a bandmate who’s a registered intercourse offender. Pulido’s marketing campaign has mentioned he was unaware of the bandmate’s legal historical past, which features a conviction for indecent contact with an 8-year-old woman.
Pulido’s unearthed posts, in the meantime, embrace ones with misogynistic jokes and hyperlinks to pornographic web sites. His political foes have additionally circulated a music video from 2010 during which he performed the function of a pervert. Pulido defended the video, saying it was satirical and “based mostly on an actual singer that was caught in a lewd act.”
In a March 22 video posted on X, Pulido referred to as the criticism “low cost tabloid assaults” and mentioned they stem from translating posts from Spanish to English, which doesn’t correctly convey the unique humor.
A spokesperson for De La Cruz’s marketing campaign famous in a press release that Pulido additionally shared an specific photograph of a girl unintentionally exposing herself at his live performance in a 2023 publish.
“Whereas he’s busy explaining his predatory conduct,” the spokesperson mentioned, “Congresswoman De La Cruz is concentrated on delivering for working-class households in South Texas, as a result of she’s really one among them.”
As of Wednesday night, Pulido additionally had but to file a monetary disclosure with the Home Clerk offering particulars about his revenue, belongings and different monetary info. The report was due inside 30 days of the beginning of Pulido’s marketing campaign; candidates might request extensions earlier than that preliminary deadline, although Pulido didn’t accomplish that.
Pulido’s marketing campaign mentioned they had been working as shortly as attainable to finalize the report and would file it quickly, including that the candidate’s background as a musician makes monetary disclosures extra advanced.
“A number of the jokes, I want I might take again,” Pulido mentioned in an interview. “I’m not going to apologize for appearing in a music video. I’m an actor, I’m a singer, I’m a part of the leisure trade, and I feel that they’re simply greedy at straws.”
Earlier than he launched his marketing campaign for Texas, Pulido grew to become a family identify in Tejano music, which is a fusion of Mexican and American sounds that originated in Texas. He’s gotten 5 Latin Grammy nominations and has greater than 8 million month-to-month listeners on Spotify.
Janie Sáenz mentioned Tejano music has impacted her and her household’s lives, including that quinceañeras are vital to her household as a marker of each the beginning of maturity and a celebration of the childhood that’s ending.
“Bobby Pulido’s music has been a serious a part of our household rising up,” Janie Sáenz mentioned. “We’re very proud, not solely of our final identify, however the whole lot we’ve inherited.”
Disclosure: College of Texas – Rio Grande Valley has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan information group that’s funded partly by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Monetary supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Discover a full listing of them right here.
This text first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
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