Facing stiff GOP competition, Rep. Henry Cuellar buries hatchet with organized labor

WASHINGTON — As he enters the final stretch of what has been the longest and hardest fought reelection battle of his 17-year political career, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar is seeking the help of an unlikely ally: San Antonio labor unions. 

With the GOP pouring money like it never has into Cuellar’s district to boost GOP challenger Cassy Garcia, the Laredo Democrat has been reaching out to unions — a group of traditionally Democratic voters that has long seen Cuellar as unfriendly at best. Unions helped push his primary opponent, Jessica Cisneros, to just 281 votes shy of unseating the congressman just a few months ago.

It’s part of a broader strategy by Cuellar to expand his base in Bexar County, a section of the 28th Congressional District that will be more important than ever in deciding whether he will serve another term.

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Labor organizers say Cuellar has never before seemed to care about earning their support. The congressman has never shown up to their candidate screenings in San Antonio, they say.

And he has occasionally voted against their interests. Cuellar was the lone Democrat in the House to vote against the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, legislation aimed at bolstering unions. 

But that dynamic has changed in recent weeks, and labor groups that once fought against Cuellar are now begrudgingly supporting him, though many are still falling short of endorsing him for reelection.

“He’s admitted he hasn’t been there for labor in the past, but he’s renewed the commitment to leave his door open for us, be on the phone for us,” said Charles Fuentes, legislative director of the San Antonio branch of the Communication Workers of America. 

Fuentes said the local CWA, which backed Cisneros in the primary, has not endorsed Cuellar. But its president appeared at a press conference with the congressman on Tuesday in a show of support.

Fuentes said Cuellar has met with the local chapter a handful of times over the last few months. The congressman has also met with other members of the San Antonio Central Labor Council, which includes 36 local unions. 

“I know in the past we haven’t seen eye to eye,” Fuentes said. “We’ve talked, we’ve had quite a few conversations, he seems very reasonable … We’re going to give him his chance and see what he can do for the folks of Texas 28.” 

Their support could be a big boost for Cuellar’s efforts in Bexar County, whose voters now have significantly more say in the district after it was redrawn to include tens of thousands more potential voters from the San Antonio area.

Bexar County now rivals Cuellar’s home of Webb County as a major population center in the district, which stretches across much of southeast San Antonio and into downtown. Its northwestern-most tip now extends beyond the Alamo.

“I think both sides recognize that San Antonio is key to winning this thing,” said Jon Taylor, a political scientist at the University of Texas-San Antonio. 

Garcia, a former staffer for U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, has her campaign headquarters in Schertz, a more conservative part of the district’s northern end. She is also certain to be targeting voters in San Antonio’s South Side who supported state Rep. John Lujan, a Republican who flipped a blue district last year that overlaps heavily with the new boundaries of the congressional district in Bexar County. 

In the last week, Garcia was at events around San Antonio, including a cookout with U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, an Austin Republican, and an early voting kickoff event with Gov. Greg Abbott. 

Garcia and the House GOP have spent more than $3 million on TV ads alone — an unprecedented amount for a party that has rarely competed in the district — plastering screens with depictions of Cuellar as an entrenched politician who has lost touch with his constituents. 

The race is one of three in South Texas where Republicans hope to build on gains in a region where Democrats have long dominated. 

Garcia said if elected she would establish a “permanent presence” in San Antonio, where she claims she has engaged with thousands of voters.

“Everywhere I go in our community I hear the same thing from voters: South Texans want change,” she said. “People are frustrated that my opponent, Henry Cuellar, has been in office since the 1980s and has failed to address our challenges.”

But Bexar County is historically a deep blue county — President Joe Biden won it by 18 percentage points — and it’s an area where Cuellar has a lot of potential ground to gain with Democratic voters. The county went heavily for Cisneros in the primary: Cuellar drew less than 15 percent of the vote there. 

“Those voters, they’re not going to vote for Cassy Garcia — but they’re not necessarily going to vote for Henry Cuellar unless he can convince them,” Taylor said. “He’s basically shopping for Cisneros voters and trying to get them to hold their nose and vote for Cuellar.”

Cuellar opened a campaign headquarters in San Antonio earlier this month and has been making the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Laredo about three times a week for the last several weeks, mostly for events touting federal funding he says he has brought to that end of the district from his perch on the House Appropriations Committee. 

“We’re doing a lot of retail politics, which is something I’ve done back here in the southern part of the district,” Cuellar said. 

The union outreach has been a big part of that effort. 

“I do understand unions are so important in the San Antonio area,” Cuellar said. “In my area, in the southern part, in the rural areas, that’s a different environment.

“This will help consolidate the Democratic vote,” he said. “We’ve had very good, very frank conversations with them. I look forward to working with them in the future.”

ben.wermund@chron.com